Saturday, September 14, 2024

Hot Hero Sandwich Project Archives: New York Times Article, Nov. 4, 1979

by G. Jack Urso


The New York Times reviews two new children's shows for 1979, Feelings, hosted by Dr. Lee Salk on PBS, and Hot Hero Sandwich on NBC. Dr. Salk and Carole Hart are interviewed for their respective shows in this piece, though it is not revealed that Dr. Salk also served as a consultant for Hot Hero Sandwich and interviewed the children for the various animated segments (see Hot Hero Sandwich Clip Job! Animated Short Films — The Fantastic World of Jerry Lieberman). That particular detail was shared in Hot Hero Sandwich Project Archives: Record World Article, Nov. 24, 1979. There is no listing for Feelings on the Internet Movie Database, and it is unknown how long the show lasted.

This is an expansive and detailed article with a lot of original quotes and background information, so dig in Hot Hero fans!
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New York Times Article. Photograph features (l- r) Paul O'Keefe, L. Michael Craig, and Adam Ross.

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 CafĂ© 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.”

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