Behind the scenes with a network original (Peter Jennings Called "Prickly & Pretentious")

Miami Herald ^ | June 8, 2003 | IKE SEAMANS

[PJ-Comix]

Roone Arledge's autobiography is like many egocentric ''how I saved the world'' memoirs. However, as Mohammed Ali opined, 'It ain't braggin' if it's true.'' Roone is packed with true stories about a legendary career that revolutionized TV sports, converted a doormat news division into a supernova and helped transform a woebegone, ''smoke and mirrors'' network into a powerhouse. Arledge's accomplishments are well documented, notably in Marc Gunther's The House That Roone Built and Monday Night Mayhem, but this is the master's voice, the inside scoop, a rare glimpse of genius ''up close and personal'' (a Roone original).

Arledge was one of the first to recognize the profitability of marrying sports and show business, which made millions for the network and catapulted him to the presidency of ABC Sports. He invented Olympics coverage, such landmark shows as Monday Night Football and Wide World of Sports while ''spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat'' (another Roone original).

Sometimes he got lucky. Rookie ABC won the rights to telecast the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble even though veteran NBC told French officials it should be chosen based on its experience covering big events such as football bowl games. ''Why did NBC keep talking about their bowel games?'' one Frenchman asked the victorious Arledge. ``Very questionable taste.''

In 1977, he added ABC News to his firmament. Using the same formula, he catapulted ''the temple of the unwatched'' to No. 1 within two years. To make his galaxy shine, Arledge needed superstars, and he snared many of them by shamelessly raiding other networks.

This book lacks kiss-and-tell revelations, but offers insights into the monster he created. ''There were days when I hated the business,'' he writes, ''hated dealing with the prima donnas.'' Love-hate relationships were not unusual. On Howard Cosell: ''A strange creature wandering the nation's locker rooms.'' Peter Jennings: ''Prickly and pretentious.'' Barbara Walters: ''Fabulous as long as she wasn't anchoring.'' Ted Koppel: ''Did his best to terminate my employment.'' David Brinkley: ``Class and clout -- a bona fide star.''

Arledge fails to mention that the outrageous salaries he lavished on his stars helped create financial turmoil in the industry, nor does he discuss how his style over substance philosophy shortchanged news and sports coverage. He also glosses over how his monetary excesses helped put ABC in the red while ripping fiscally conservative Capitol Cities, which bought the network and turned it around.

In 1998, Arledge -- branded a freewheeling dinosaur -- was forced out after four decades. ''It was not a world in which I felt particularly comfortable,'' he writes, ``a world that exploited much and created little, where buying and selling outstripped content, where older concepts I'd grown up with -- building, loyalty, integrity -- had less room.''

The best parts of Roone are the maestro's reminiscences about his early days at ABC when he had more impact than any TV executive, before or since, in creating popular news and sports programming. Especially memorable and moving is his account of ABC's groundbreaking and gut-wrenching coverage of the 1972 Munich Olympics when terrorists killed 11 Israeli athletes. Roone, which Arledge was finishing when he died at 71 last December, is a significant addition to TV history written by a giant who recast an industry and whose innovations still influence TV sports and news today.

[PJ-Comix]

Peter Jennings: ''Prickly and pretentious.''

Accurate description of Peter Jennings but Roone Arledge could also have left the "ly" off "Prickly."

[martin_fierro]

[Copernicus]

Posted to *CCRM

[Endeavor]

I caught his funeral on C-SPAN -- it was tons of fun watching some of the "stars" obviously have to come up with some non-petulant things to say. It appeared to me that he was a strong guy who ran things his way and wasn't particularly enamored with his stars' opinions of themselves.

My kinda guy.

[ex-Texan]

'' David Brinkley: ``Class and clout -- a bona fide star.''

Good call on Brinkley. He was a class act. Recall how the network forced him to apolgize for his 'Clinton is a boor remark ?' That was an absolute travesty. Wonder what Jennings and Koppel had to do with that . . . ?

[Atlas Sneezed]

The clear heir of Brinkley is Brit Hume. Manners, smarts, class.

[longtermmemmory]

I really wish they would replace Peter, the canadian citizen, Jennings.

(s) Perhaps the unbiased george stephanopolis (/s)

[longtermmemmory]

I urge everyone to find a copy of David Brinkley's washington goes to war. Its about how washington DC built up into the beaureacratic city megahouse it is today.