Two New Shows Take Aim at Teen‐Age Viewers
By Alex
Ward
Nov. 4,
1979
“You never
see anything on television where children are not made to simply look cute or
are not made fun of,” Dr. Lee Salk, the child psychologist, said recently. “I
would like to make adults more respectful of children. I want to show that they
have something to say about important things — they're just never asked.”
On his new
public‐television series “Feelings,” Dr. Salk attempts to remedy that very
situation: youngsters — most of them adolescents between the ages of 8 and 14 —
are asked what's on their minds. “A lot of people say to me after they've seen
our show, ‘Where did you find such brilliant kids?’ said Dr. Salk. “It's not
that they're so brilliant, it's that they're getting a chance to talk.”
“Feelings,”
which had its premiere last month and is seen locally on Channel 13 at 11:30 on
Saturday mornings, is one of this season's two new television series aimed
primarily at adolescents. This Saturday at noon NBC will unveil “Hot Hero
Sandwich,” an hour‐long collection of rock music, comedy skits and celebrity
interviews that aspires to convey a message, if not a moral. The message,
according to Bruce and Carole Hart, the show's creators, is: You are passing
through a crazy time of life, but don't despair, you are not alone.
“Our show
gives no advice, but we are trying to say that everybody goes through the
changes of adolescence. and they usually feel isolated,” recently explained Mr.
Hart, who shares credits with his wife for the television special “Free to Be
... You and Me” and the made‐for‐television movie “Sooner or Later.” They were
also the original writers for “Sesame Street.”
“We want
to pierce that feeling of isolation,” he said. “If we do, I think we'll help
alleviate some of these problems.”
The intent
of “Feelings” is somewhat similar but is communicated in quite a different
manner. The format of the half‐hour series is a small forum led by Dr. Salk,
who talks with groups of youngsters about their reactions to specific problems.
Each ‘show focuses on a topic — the first one, for instance, was divorce, last
week's was child abuse, this week's will be love — with which all the
participants have had first‐hand experience. Some of the other subjects that
will be discussed in subsequent programs are juvenile delinquency, sexuality,
anger, lying and cheating.
On one
earlier program, Dr. Salk asked handicapped youngsters to describe their
family's reactions to their disability. “My mother went crazy when she heard,”
said David, a 9‐yearold with cerebral palsy. “I was sad, but I knew how to cope
with it. For a kid with nine operations, I'm turning out pretty well.”
Another
youngster, asked if he was ever embarrassed by the spinal disease he suffers
from, said what bothered him was when other children stared. “I call it ‘the
handicapped look,’ “ he said, “and I know what they're thinking. If they just
came up and asked me about it, I wouldn't be shy. I'd tell them about it.”
Dr. Salk,
who has more than 20 years of experience in child psychology, also appears
regularly on ABC's “Good Morning, America” and, as a consultant to NBC, will
have a hand in future segments of “Hot Hero Sandwich.” He refers to “Feelings”
as “a mission I've had for a long time.”
Appropriately
enough, Dr. Salk explained, the series became a reality because his 11‐year‐old
daughter was friendly with the daughter of Judith Moses, a television producer.
The two parents eventually met and discovered a mutual interest in creating
just such a show as “Feelings.”
“I have
been doing television for some time,” said Dr. Salk, “and I had long wanted to
do something exactly like this. Judith was enthusiastic, so we put our minds
together and came up with a format.”
The
youngsters who appear on the program are chosen by Mrs. Moses and her staff,
but they don't meet Dr. Salk until a few minutes before the show is taped.
“It's more natural that way,” he explained. “What I want them to do is let
loose when they talk, let it come out the way it is.”
The
results can be poignant, as when a young girl who has been in jail three times
and is about to be released from reform school, is asked what has gone wrong
with her life. The somber response is: “Just about everything.”
And they
can be funny. In the program on sexuality scheduled to be televised in early
December, a 14‐year‐old girl explains that she and her mother have frequent and
candid conversations about sex. “Does that make you want to go out and ... do
it?” Dr. Salk asks hesitantly.
“You
kidding?” is the reply. “I haven't even had a date yet!”
“When we
were getting started with this series,” Dr. Salk recalled, “a lot of people
told me it wouldn't work. They said we'd never get much out of the children,
and that a discussion‐type show would not be entertaining enough for young
people. Well, I think we've shown that the kids have something to say. As for
our audience, it's impossible for me to know yet who we're reaching. But I also
think it's wrong to think that young people won't watch just because it's a
serious program. I think that judgment is unfair to them.”
 |
| TV Program
Listing for Feelings, Dec. 7, 1979. |
“Hot Hero
Sandwich,” in contrast, seems based on the more conventional television
approach to adolescents: that a program has to be glossy and lively, or they
won't watch.
Early this
year, the Harts were approached by NBC and asked to tailor a series for the
noon‐to‐1‐P.M. time slot on Saturdays. While early‐Saturday mornings on
television are traditionally the purview of small children, said Mrs. Hart,
“we're told that by 11 or so, the older kids are also watching. In our
particular hour, NBC has told us, 40 percent of the audience is over 18.”
The format
of the new series was left entirely up to the Harts. “The network only
specified that it be a children's show,” Mrs. Hart said. “We decided to aim for
this age group because we feel we have an affinity for it. They are the ‘Sesame
Street’ generation 10 years later.” The couple have no children of their own
but believe that their earlier, successful television programs have given them
insights into what appeals to younger viewers.
Although
“Hot Hero Sandwich” comes stamped with a recommendation from the National
Education Association, it hardly has the look of an educational program. “Kids
today are as hip, or hipper, than we are,” said Mr. Hart, “so we can't have the
show coming across like a Sunday sermon. We have to earn their trust by giving
them the best rock‐and‐roll and the best comedy. Then they can relax and sit
still and listen to somebody say something interesting.”
If
youngsters manage to sit still for “Hot Hero Sandwich” they will find more than
enough movement on the screen, where the individual parts of the program are
virtually cannonballed at them. Pow! Here's a snippit of an interview with
Olivia Newton-John. Pow! Here's the show's own Hot Hero Band, singing their
theme song, “Hot Hero.” Pow! Here's a comedy skit. Pow! Here's a disco number
by Sister Sledge. Pow! Here's an animation sequence. Pow! Here's another piece
of an interview, this time with sports star Bruce Jenner. Pow! Here's a
commercial. Phew!
Overall,
the interviews comprise about 15 of the show's total 49 minutes, but the
segments usually run about a minute each and rarely last longer than three
minutes. “We simply think that what has to be said can be said more effectively
in less time than more time,” said Mrs. Hart in explaining the brevity of these
segments.
The
sketches are performed by the program's seven‐member repertory company— who
range in age from 18 to 28 — and deal with what the Harts call “the universal
problems” of the teenage years. In this Saturday's premiere program, for
instance, there is a skit about a young boy who is angry at his parents because
they are about to get a divorce. His pals at the Hot Hero Café advise him to
take out all his frustrations on the football field at the week's big game.
“There's
nothing you can say in terms of advising somebody about how to behave in a
situation like that,” said Mrs. Hart. “It's a painful and traumatic experience
that has to be lived through. By approaching it through comedy, we show a way
kids, among themselves, can help each other.”
When
queried that the high‐speed, fragmentary format of “Hot Hero Sandwich” might be
disconcerting to some, the Harts defended the construction. “Each scene of the
program is connected to the next,” said Mr. Hart. “Though we are using
fragments, our fragments form a mosaic. For instance, subjects that are
discussed in the interviews often dovetail with the skit material. When Ronnie
Howard told us about his first date with his wife — she asked him out because
he was too shy — it was almost exactly like one of the skits. And the skit had
been written before the interview.”
The lineup
of celebrity interviewees, which the Harts say they selected from most‐admired
lists in magazine polls of teen‐agers, includes a cross‐section of show
business, sports, journalism and political figures. Among them are Coretta
Scott King, Henry Fonda, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Richard Pryor, Christopher
Reeve, Beverly Sills, Gloria Steinem, Kurt Vonnegut, Barbara Walters, Carl
Bernstein, Judy Blume, Cheryl Tiegs, Julius Erving and Kareem Abdul‐Jabbar.
Like the
skits, the interviews touch on the gamut of teen‐age experiences, from first
dates, nicknames and pimples to relationships with parents and siblings,
divorce and death in the family. They are conducted by Dr. Thomas J. Cottle, a
clinical psychologist and sociologist from Boston, who calls them “the
emotional spine of the show.”
“There is
a great identity of young people with these celebrities,” said Dr. Cottle, “and
when they discuss their own adolescence it's significant. I buy the notion that
without identification with others, there can't be an emergence of one's own
identity.”
“Hot
Hero's” time slot is late enough that the Harts hope the show will attract some
parents, too. “Teen‐age kids and their parents often have a hard time getting
through to one another,” said Mrs. Hart, “and we hope our show will create a
little intergenerational communication.”
Parts of
the series should strike a responsive chord with many older viewers. At one
point in the second week's program, Coretta King, reminiscing about her own
childhood, talks fondly of how she and her friends used to make their own toys.
“Of
course,” she says, “my own children wouldn't have known anything about that.
All they wanted to do was watch television.”
