Tom's 'Prime Time' : too much of nothing By MARK VAITKUS In the wake of recent CBS Nielsen. success with 60 Minutes, it came as lit- tle surprise that the other major net- works would quickly develop weekly news magazines of their very own. ABC christened its clone 20/20, while over at NBC, unimaginatively enough, Prime Time Sunday was born (now Prime Time Saturday after dismal ratings forced a time switch). 0 Although neither network's alter- native appears capable of overtaking 60 Minutes' popularity, 20/20 is holding its competitive own with generally insight- ful commentary and the appeal of its host Hugh Downs, not to mention the likes of reporter Sylvia Chase. Prime Time, on the other hand, continues to bring up the proverbial cellar. By now the NBC brass must be pon- dering over what went awry. As is the case with most everything Fred Slverman has wrought since arriving in Land o'f the Peacock, the answer is bound to be complex. But perhaps part -of the difficulty can be traced to Tom Snyder, the newsman/interviewer who was to provide the major viewer attrac- tion for Prime Time. Make that a ra- ther large part of the difficulty. Mr. Snyder's claim to fame is, of course, as the man who brings us Tomorrow, four mornings a week - 4ollowing The Tonight Showbut always full six hours before Today. (How does NBC keep coming up with those ingenious titles?) Tomorrow proved to sponsors once and for all that people do indeed watch commercials after 1 a.m., even if Johnny's last guest is Dr. Len- don Smith. In a time slot where the greatest competition is often an old made-for-TV movie, the insomnia crowd took an immediate liking to Snyder's typically off-beat interviews 'ith convicts, witches, runaways, and just about any other available noncon- formists. SNYDER'S interviewing style is far removed from the slick presentation of a Mike Wallace, yet hiTauorrow show manages to stay well above the provin- cialism of Phil Donahue, ;for example. His questions are usually pointed and serve to keep guests, particularly the counter-cultural ones, from wandering into ambiguities. Nevertheless, he I*ways seems to maintain a genuine in- erest and involvement with his subjec- ts on Tomorrow, providing just the right amounts of "friction" and then Director' disks for reduced rate hike (Continued from Page 1) "Great!" said Darcy Gingerich, a eshwoman in Alice Lloyd. "That's ery good news." Janice Keramedjian, a Mosher- Jordan resident and member of the rate study committee, said Hughes' decision "was something I didn't expect." Keramedjian said she felt Hughes' unexpected decision increases the changes that the Regents would vote to iminate the consolidation program. If the Regents approve the Housing Office's recommendations, a single room next year would cost ap- proximately $2,481; a double, $2,092; and a triple, $1,846. giving them plenty of room to expound their emotions and beliefs. Snyder is every bit as stimulating as David Susskind, but without that stuffy air of superiority. Somehow the darkened New York studio, the seediness of the guests, coupled with Snyder's low-key abrasiveness, ragged laugh, and on-camera chain smoking blend remarkably well in Tomorrow. A better combination probably could not be found for a show which airs after most parents have finally gotten their sixth-graders off to bed. And there couldn't be a more appropriate vehicle to suit Tom Snyder's talents. As with most everything that works well in television, there are limitless at- tempts to exploit it, and Snyder is no exception. NBC execs considered grooming him for Today as well as The Nightly News once Barbara Walters defected to ABC. There was even talk he might take over the almighty reign of J.C. o The Tonight Show. Instead he was given Prime Time Sunday, and it was hoped that with the smoothing over of a few rough edges, Snyder could become another Harry Reasoner. UNFORTUNATELY, without his rough edges, Snyder is like Dinah without her coffee cups or Mike Douglas without his co-host. He looks uncomfortable and stiff on Prime Time, almost as if he not completely engaged in what he is doing. He goes through the motions of anchorperson, but provides negligible continuity for the segment format, an admittedly radical depar- ture from the one hour, in-depth arrangement on Tomorrow. Like Dick Cavet, Snyder suffers greafly iii the process of editing. His relatively passive firing of questions makes clean cuts awk- ward. Invariably the flow, or the relaxed pacing which is a trademark of the Snyder interview is disruptively compromised. Without a doubt, however, Tom's greatest problems on Prime Time derive from his limited cpacity to in- terview conventional personalities. This shortcoming was brought quite painfully to light las Monday (Jan. 21) when NBC aired the first of three specials designed to bring Snyder more spectacularly before the public eye. BILLED AS Tom Snyder's Celebrity Spotlight, the show cast Tom in the role of :Rona Barrett via Bo Derek, Gary Coleman, tarry Manilow, and Clint Eastwood. This tactical blunder should have informed even the most casual ob- server why anything similar Snyder has tried on the less-than-grand scale of Prime Time was doomed from the start. A few examples will suffice to make the point. During the Derek interview, having established that Bo posed for Playboy: Toen: Is that lirfienltIo eo (pose in thwe gulle? Bo: t's nt the usualnt Playb tuasing...ir x aked, beatifl,.it was in a beatial place.. Tomn: It's a lass at is what vo'r' sa I ing. Later, in the course of having Bo react to "rumors" about herself: Tom: (They sai) she's a pretty girl but not rery bright. fi: Oh reull0?I'e mecer heard that. Tn: Well I har". The Michigan Daily-,Wednesday, January 30, 1980-Page 5 Join the artspage Have you ever attended a concert, play, or film only to awaken the following morning to read a review that seemed to be written by someone who went to a different show of the same name? If you've ever said "I could do that!" after disagreeing with an arts page review, it's time to put your typewriter where your mouth is. The Michigan Daily is looking for new staff writers. The only prerequisites are a specific interest in writing and a general interest in the arts (use your own definition). Beside the usual popular music-theater-film criticism, we have an urgent need for writers interested in classical music, the visual arts, and arts-oriented features. The bottom line here is creativity; if you have some insight or a new approach to offer, the arts page could be your outlet. If you are interested, the first step is to prepare a sample of your writing. Length isn't important here; we just want something representative of your style and the subject matter you'd like to cover. Stop by the Student Publications Building at 420 Maynard any afternoon and ask for the arts editors. What do these two men have in common? Perhaps the fact that while both are well known, nobody is too sure why Tom Snyder and Steve Martin are so popular. Today's page should shed a little light on this dilemma. lo:I'm not dunI,. Torn: You xfm a little elefnsirr alout that. Merv, where are you? With Clint Eastwood the ridiculous approached the sublime: Iom: What was your job in the war? It was probahlyvy dangerous. Clint: Yeah, I was a swinming in- streactor. Tom: Did %-on eer 11vY awake it night and think about how much bert- ter it was to be a swilmnmuing instructor than ont there fighting? Clint: Yeah, I thought about it eavry night. SNYDER'S COMPLETE boredom with his task was nowhere more ob- vious than in his conversation with Manilow. To Manilow's report that he "was lucky to make it home alive" as a child in his rough neighborhood, Snyder replied, "Well, you did." Even the fact that Barry had delivered mail for "Freddy" Silverman evoked from Snyder only the most nonchalant "Really?" I do not believe that Snyder was being either stupid or facetious through all of this. He simply was not all that in- terested in Gary Coleman's train set or whether Clint Eastwood wants an Academy Award or how Bo Derek tur- ned down King Kong but agreed to star in Orca the Killer Whale. The camera easily and continuously betrayed every facial effort Snyder made to look as if he did not wish he was someplace else ,or, on a few occasions, that he was not actually nodding off. In a very real sense, Snyder per- sonally had nothing to talk about with his captive superstars. Why else would he ask each one of them what they had thought of becoming when they grew up? IS IT FAIR to suggest that Snyder is not performing his job professionally? Maybe. But we have got to keep in mind that four nights a week he has the op- portunity to apprehend the minds of prostitutes and mediums. Should it really be any wonder that the evolution of Barry Manilow's career might have the same attraction for him as stale cot- ton candy? The bright lights, the glare of studio polish, the competition from Fantasy Island, and all those "prime time people" that go with them, are ap- parently just a bit too much for Mr. Snyder. A bit too much of nothing. Barry said Tom was "exactly right" in his interpretation of "One Voice" as opaque. Barry also said that at first he thought the song was "so simple it was dumb." A bit too much of nothing? If Barry Manilow says so, you've got to believe it. r ' The Jerk' BY JOSHUA M. PECK cringing i Carl Reiner, the man who tutored Mel pathy with Brooks in comic technique, the man they see be responsible for the 2000-Year-Old Man, Watching The Dick. Van Dyke Show, and current trE numerous other humorous delights, has to buy th sullied his heretofore sterling comic colleague reputation with The Jerk, the most in- genius. B sidiously benumbing "comedy" of the physical c year. harmony He is abetted in this horror by leading produce hi player Steve Martin, who, despite his not by she occasionally amusing sojourns on the the Compa Saturday Night Live set, seems to have tainers to put even the rudiments of genuinely film, The comic acting behind him. He leaps which was blissfully from shtick to shtick, eviden- American tly ignorant of the total dearth of jollity Continenta his efforts afford, meek schl The Jerk follows the jerk from his origins in a black share-cropper's home in the South, to fame and fortune in the big city, and then to despair and pover- ty. It makes myriad stops along the way to revel in what its creators clearly imagine to be gloriously funny sequen- ces (they let each drag on for seeming eternity), but which come up lacking laughs with remarkable consistency. TAKE THE scene in which Navin Johnson (Martin) is shown his living quarters by the gas station owner who has just hired him on as an attendant (please). Taken into a bathroom, he is given to understand that the little room is intended for his occupancy. Ignorant as he is, he rambles unselfconsciously on, singing his undying thanks for his host's hospitality. Perhaps a chuckle or two could have been squeezed out of the sequence had director and star npt fallen all over themselves trying to milk it, but by the time Martin finally shuts up after a half minute of tedium, the audience members have begun Abad n embarrassment in sym- m the showcase of ineptitude la fore them. co g Steve Martin at work in the u avesty practically forces one fr he European view of his Jerry Lewis as a comic di Both men are primarily tu omedians, but Lewis works in ar with script and soul to B umor through his situations, a er tomfoolery. What brings d rison between the two enter- d mind especially in Lewis' tl Absent-Minded Professor, pi s unjustly scorned by most critics (but again, not by C ). ones). In it, Lewis' usual h emiel discovers a potion that m joke akes him a gregarious, handsome dies' man. The humor stems from the ntrast between the professor's newly nleashed id and his normal, hopelessly azzled disposition. When Martin kicks into a flailing sco dance late in The Jerk, he is ac- ally offering a less clever, more rrogant version of Lewis' alter ego. ut his enactment of the type is only rrogance and aggressive stupidity, ragged down into the humorless oldrums by foregoing most of the sub- ety and all the humanity, while icking up twice the obnoxiouspess. Listen, Mssrs. Reiner and Martin: omedy comes from poking fun at uman folly, not from the antics of nachines. Hughes recruiters speak many languages: FORTRAN, laser, gallium arsenide, microwave, Comsat, 'fellowships, ADA (a dialect of Pascal), and more. Best of all, they talk your language. So have a talk about your future and ours. Ask your placement office when the Hughes recruiters will be on campus. L---------------------- HUGHES AIRCRAFT COMPANY AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER M/F qqI rateJoseph Helleir's aGood1as- GIdsomewhere between The Brothers Karajmazov 'and those dirty little eight-pagers we used to read...Coser to M el B ro o ks9 EXCERPTED FROM THE WASHINGTON POST Good as Gold made Mel Brooks laugh. It'll make you laugh. Laugh out loud. Because it's about Bruce Gold, a man who began life in Coney Island and ended up in America's real amusement park, Washington, DC. He's the kind of guy only Joseph Heller can give you. Hilarious. Heartbreaking. And only slightly less insane than the world around him. He's a true Joseph Heller hero. Created by the writer who's already given us two extraordinary and enduring novels, Catch-22 and Something Happened. Good as Gold. It has been praised as "more perceptive-about human nature than anything else Heller has done...he is among the novelists of the last two decades who matter." THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS a. 5th.Avenue atLi.er. t.767-9700 Forniprly Fifth Forum Theater -J A KNOCK-OUT COMEDYII TIM CONWAY DON KNOTTS, wMMMIO I