TV Pioneers Agree There Have Been Changes, and Mostly Not for the Better

If you add it up, there had to be more than two centuries of TV experience among the five of them: talk show host Dick Cavett, actress Betty White, sidekick Ed McMahon, comedian Tim Conway and singer Tony Orlando.

Some, like White, a regular on "Boston Legal," are still piling up credits. Others, like Cavett, are mostly retired, occasionally plugging the DVD set of his greatest interviews. Maybe they haven't seen it all, but they've seen plenty. TV is not the same, they told TV critics Monday at the annual summer press tour.

They were at the TCA summer press tour Monday in connection with a four-part series, "Pioneers of Television," to be telecast early next year. Phyllis Diller, also scheduled to appear, begged off at the last minute because of "serious health issues."

Cavett, famous for his thoughtful questions and sharp wit, said he wouldn't know where to look today to find intelligent conversation. There still are interesting people, he said, but "you wouldn't know it form network television." A big problem is the way networks split the screen into four parts, or more. "They get their eight words out and then they're on top of the screen."

The proliferation of viewing options is making it harder for any show to get a big audience, Orlando noted. "I was canceled with a 32 share," he added. Even worse, people in TV don't help one another as much as they did years ago. "That's not there anymore. There's too much bickering and putting others down."

"In the first two or three years of the 'Tonight' show, Johnny Carson and I were not allowed to say the word 'pregnant.' Now you can say anything," said McMahon, Carson's longtime sidekick. "That's how TV has changed, for better or for worse." But which is it? Better or worse, one TV critic asked. "I think for the worst."

Today's TV personalities often forget a cardinal rule, White said. "You're never talking to more than two or three people on television." They need to get rid of their blank expressions, look into the camera, and talk to those two or three viewers.

Cavett returned to the news spotlight with the revelation that newly-released tapes showed that President Richard Nixon wanted him stifled. "I'm glad the son of a bitch is still dead but more than I was before," he said.

Posted by Barry Garron