Friday, November 29, 2024

In Conversation with Production Unit Secretary Claudia Rocco

by G. Jack Urso


When interviewing actor Christopher Reeve for Hot Hero Sandwich, Dr. Tom Cottle had to fly from Los Angeles to Chicago, through Detroit, and finally in a bumpy airlift to Mackinac Island, Michigan (where Reeve was filming Somewhere in Time), in what Cottle generously referred to as a “puddle jumper,” someone had to make the arrangements, pay for the tickets, get the hotel rooms, meal vouchers, etc. Those duties belong to the unit production department headed by Bob Newman and Ken Aymong and the person who helped make those arrangements and prepared the invoices was Claudia Rocco.

Network television production units are responsible for scheduling transportation, hotels, meals, rented equipment, technical facilities, security, and related services for any programs, including entertainment, sports, and news. The supervising production administrator for Hot Hero Sandwich was Robert Newman who was assisted by production administrators Ken Aymong and Nancy Freedman. Aymong later became well-known for his decades as a producer for Saturday Night Live.

One thing that former reporters like myself learn is that if you want to really know what is going on get to know the secretaries, yet Claudia Rocco was more than that. While referred to as a secretary in 1979, her title today might be more equivalent to an administrative assistant. Claudia was, in fact, a trained communications professional with a degree from St. John’s University. Right after college, Claudia secured a position with NBC and stayed there in various positions for 47 years. It is a broadcasting tenure few people would be able to do today.

In her interview with the Hot Hero Sandwich Project, Claudia paints a picture of the activities and offices involved in producing the show. We get an insider’s look at how things got down, the technology of the era, and the low-down on a scandal brewing in the production unit that would result in numerous charges of fraud which, although Hot Hero production staff was not involved, it would result in an overhaul of accounting practices at the network.

Claudia Rocco in the Hot Hero Sandwich cast and crew picture,
seen here with the Hot Hero Band's Mike Ratti (right) and Richie Annunizato (below).
Here, Claudia takes us on a tour of NBC circa 1979 and gives us a behind-the scenes and shows us how things got done and introduces us to the people who got it done.
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I, Claudia

Hot Hero Sandwich Project (HHSP): Claudia, thank you so much for speaking with me today so the Hot Hero Sandwich Project can get a little insight from the production side of the series. Before we dig too deep into that, I’d like to get some background on what led you to NBC and Hot Hero Sandwich in particular. I see from your resume that you graduated from St. John's University in 1976. What was your degree in?

Claudia Rocco: Communications. I minored in business.

HSDP: That seems like a perfect combination for where you ended up at NBC. You must have graduated in early May 1976, and you were already working at NBC, is that correct? Did you have an internship or was that just a bit of good luck?

WNBC logo, 1976.
Claudia Rocco: I had an internship in the fall of 75. I worked at WNBC [NYC, channel 4], the local station, for Community Affairs . . . I would do research on guests that would be on the weekend. So then, when I went back to school in January of 76, I had one more semester, I got a call from one of the people [at NBC], they were looking for someone to work four hours a day to do the ascertainment interview set ups for the local station. Do you know what that is?

HHSP: No, please fill me in.

Claudia Rocco: The FCC licensing the local station needs [the station] to interview community leaders of all different types, business, religious, education. So, what I did was I would research community leaders in the tri-state area, call them up cold, introduce myself on the phone and ask them if they would like to be interviewed by someone from WNBC TV as part of FCC licensing and requirements. I started with that and then I graduated school in May, and when I graduated, I still had this part time job four hours a day, paid by the hour, $5.00 an hour [$27.74 in 2024 dollars, so a pretty good wage]. So, I thought to myself, You know what? It was pretty good back then. I'm in a TV place already. I have a degree in this. What are my chances of if I walked out getting another job? So I stayed there and I continue to do that for a full year part time.

HHSP: I have to say, as a Communications major myself for my undergraduate degree, I would have killed for that opportunity. It illustrates just how important internships are.

Claudia Rocco: When I graduated in May, I was like, you know what? I'm not going to leave this. This is because people weren't getting jobs. [Note: According to an August 6, 1976, Dept. of Labor report, unemployment among adult women was at 7.6 percent in July 1976]. You know, fifty years ago they still were struggling and I said I'm already in. What am I crazy? I have to be nuts to leave, so I stayed and II continued to work there for another year. No benefits, five bucks an hour. I didn’t care.

HHSP: And why not? You were already doing it. That was some of the best advice you ever gave yourself.

Claudia Rocco: To this day, those internships are so important. And I tell these kids, when you finish the internship, you make sure you keep in touch three, six weeks, eight weeks, by email. Say, hello. How are you? You know, just checking in.

HHSP: Absolutely. I kept in touch with my internship supervisor and that led to a paying job right after I graduated. At a certain point, however, you decided to move on and ended up in the production unit with Bob Newman [credited as Robert Newman, Supervising Production Administrator for HHS] and Ken Aymong [credited as a production supervisor for HHS]. Tell me about that.

Claudia Rocco: I continued with that job for a year and then I think I needed benefits and I think I needed to start to put money into the savings account for retirement because people were telling me you have to start that very young, very young. So, I started to look at the job posters and even though I loved the local network because it was a family, it was an unbelievable family. I applied for a job as a unit manager secretary and I got hired and that's how I moved into that.

HHSP: Tell me what your duties were. A job at NBC must have been exciting.

Claudia Rocco: Yeah, that was fun. You were assigned in the fall on different assignments, different shows. I first started out working for all the sports unit managers, so I worked for all these fellows who traveled every weekend. They were at all the games — whatever games NBC was doing, they were on the road.

So, I work for people that left on Wednesday and Thursday and came back the following week and I would do all their expense reports when they came back. They would hand me all the receipts and I would put all that stuff together and all the bills, all the vendors. And then I got to move around a little bit and then I got put on Hot Hero when that was put together.

HHSP: It sounds like you were there about a year or two before Hot Hero Sandwich.

Claudia Rocco: Yeah, 76-77 I think I probably started with them — probably 77, because I kept the other job for a year after I graduated.

HHSP: So, how was the department set up?

Claudia Rocco: There was a woman who was in charge of all of us and the VP of the department who had an office and the furniture he had and . . . I’ll never forget this, he never had overhead lighting. He had beautiful lamps in the office . . . his name was Steve Weston . . . he was very intimidating to me at time because I was young and he was an older man with gray hair. He was in charge of the whole operation.

HHSP: He [Weston] had probably been there from the 50s or the 60s, I imagine.

Claudia Rocco: Yeah, he was kind of famous in in that that area of what he did, but I'll never forget that there were no overhead lights.
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Sidebar on Steve Weston

According to an Aug. 21, 1981, New York Times article, NBC Vice President Steve Weston was caught in a kick-back scheme with other unit managing personnel and was fired by NBC in 1979. Weston pled guilty to Federal fraud charges.

The scheme dated back to 1968 and also involved and John Walsh, a director of NBC unit managers in Washington D.C. and involved numerous productions, including the 1972 and 1976 Democratic and Republican National conventions. False invoices for services and equipment would be submitted for which Weston and Walsh would receive kickbacks. Several other unit mangers also pled guilty to fraud charges.

Claudia Rocco and the Hot Hero Sandwich production unit were not involved, but it affected her nonetheless. According to Claudia:

“I, very fortunately, did not type up any of the false expense documents, but some of my friends did and they had to testify in court. After this whole thing went down, the role of the unit manager was revamped and checks were put in place through NBC Finance to prevent access to funds for them as previously were available when they went out on the road.”

“It's funny because I was a little intimidated by this older man in this beautifully appointed office —  he never gave me any reason to feel that way — I guess it was just the whole presence and authority figure thing — and he was stealing. You just never know I guess!”
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Job Description

HHSP: For those of use outside the industry, what are the responsibilities for unit management?

Bob Newman.
Claudia Rocco: Bob [Newman] was the production supervisor and then Ken [Aymong, later long-time Saturday Night Live producer] worked with him as a manager. These people were responsible for the money and the budget of the show. This was their job. The money was given. They controlled the money and the budget. Their job was to do all the bookings for all the facilities, studio time, crews, any travel arrangements that needed to be made, food that needed to be ordered for crew work. They did all of it. They managed everything except the actual acting of the people on the show.

HHSP: This was just a few years before Ken got involved with Saturday Night Live, which also took place on Studio 8-H. So, seems like a good training ground for him. Interesting that he spent most of his career around Studio 8-H though. I wonder if that was his intention?

Claudia Rocco: How it works is the unit managers also got shifted around the way the secretaries did. So Ken probably was assigned to SNL. That's probably how that came about. And he probably, you know, made friends with Lorne [Michaels, creator/producer of SNL], and they loved him, of course, who wouldn't, and that's how he got his job at Broadway Video. [Note: Broadway Video is Michaels’ multimedia entertainment company which he found in 1979.]

Howard Malley [Hot Hero Sandwich producer] was a unit manager.

HHSP: Really? I did not know that!

Claudia Rocco: I worked with Howard before when he was a unit manager.

HHSP: I’ve only heard great things about Howard from everybody who worked with him.

HHSP:  Amazing . . . amazing. I think he was involved in sports. He was was a shorter man, very lovable. And there was another man, George Smith, and the two of them kind of looked alike and they would go around together, but Howard I knew as a unit manager before all this happening.
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Sidebar on Howard Malley

According to the Internet Movie Database, Hot Hero Sandwich producer Howard Malley was hired as unit manager for NBC in 1969 working at WNBC, where Claudia Rocco would later work, producing Jets Huddle with Joe Namath and Leroy Neiman. In 1979, Malley also served as production manager for a favorite TV movie of mine, Legends of the Superheroes, a live-action film based on the Saturday morning Super Friends animated series, both of which were likely on the playlists of Hot Hero Sandwich fans since the demographics dovetailed with each other.

Hot Hero Sandwich Producer Howard Malley (left), and in character as Ym's and Ur's father (right).
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Money and Management

HHSP: The budget for Hot Hero Sandwich is something that comes up repeatedly. It was a very expensive show with a budget over $1 million [approximately $4,347,988.98 in 2024 dollars]. So, I'm wondering, given the position you were in, do if you recall is there was any hand wringing going on in the unit over the great expense of the show. It was a big ensemble and an extraordinary financial commitment on the part of the network. I suppose part of it must have been the Harts dedication to a high-quality product.

Claudia Rocco: These people were perfectionists — literally perfectionists.  I still to this day can't believe that I got to sit there and witness the quality of what was going on around. That was true TV production. This was two creative people [Bruce and Carole Hart] who were putting together, and they brought in the best . . . the best. I used to see Rex Smith all the time walking around the office, so I saw him all the time, and Tom Cottle, who was a psychologist – smart, super smart.

I would listen to all of this. My desk was like in the middle when you walked in the front door, so it was a suite. It was almost like a big living room. I was sitting so everybody had to walk past me and they went into their individual offices. So I would, you know, hear and see things, but I never actually sat in on a meeting.

HHSP: You were definitely in the center of action. How about day-to-day interactions with the Harts and the rest of the cast and crew who came through the suite?

Claudia Rocco: Super nice, always super nice. As I said, when you walked in, I'm the first one that you saw. Everybody always said hello to me. Felix [Pappalardi] would say good morning to me and my day was set my day, literally was set.

The Hot Hero Sandwich production office phone extensions.
Claudia Rocco answered lines 4167, 4174, and 4700.  
Rock Notes

HHSP: I know you love Classic Rock, so this must have been a great experience watching all those Rock acts roll through. You had Joe Jackson, Stephen Stills, Sister Sledge, Eddie Money . . .

Claudia Rocco:  Literally this summer, I just saw Joe Jackson at Tarrytown [NY].

HHSP: You have a pretty active schedule hitting shows I understand.

Claudia Rocco:  This year was a little bit of a slow year. We went to see Martin Barr [of Jethro Tull] three times in the past couple of weeks, and then I saw Renaissance a couple weeks ago. I love Annie Haslam. Billy Joel a couple times. I go to a lot of smaller venues now. I’m going to see Pat Travers next week, John Ford of the Strawbs [a 1960s British rock group]. Amazing . . . Amazing. Well, he's going to be performing. He lives here now on Long Island. He's from England, but he moved here.

HHSP: That’s a slow year? [laughter] Between interning and working at NBC, your path must have crossed a lot of performers.

Claudia Rocco: I was in an elevator with John Entwhistle [The Who]. Robert Plant was being interviewed and one of the girls and I went to the sixth floor studio just to look at him!

HHSP: For a Classic Rock fan, it must have been a fantastic experience not knowing who you might cross paths with. Speaking of crossing paths, I understand yours crossed with our friend Jimmy Biondolillo, the show’s music coordinator quite often. He worked in the office writing arrangements with the help of his pitch pipe, correct?

Claudia Rocco:  Yeah. He’d be in the conference room right next to where I was. He would go in, close the door, and I would hear that with little sounds all day and then he will come out the end of the day with sheets of music written. So, I would hear that all day. And then on the other side of the corridor there was Felix [Pappalardi] with his little piano in his office and I would hear things there too.

HHSP: So that's how things were set up. I had this idea that they [Pappalardi and Biondolillo] were all locked up in this little sound recording studio somewhere, but they were all right there in the office. That building was adjacent to 30 Rock, correct?

30 Rockefeller Center, NYC (Credit: Ephemeral New York).
Claudia Rocco: Right, we were right next door to Radio City. So, you had to go to 30 Rock, run downstairs, through the subway to the underground concourse, and then came up In 30 Rock, right next door to Radio City. I think its 1270 6th Ave., and that's where they had beautiful suites. The Harts [Bruce and Carole] had like an apartment. They had this incredible bathroom that was better than the bathroom in my house, and they said “You could use it.” But I wasn’t going to use it!

[laughter]

Long Days, Longer Nights

HHSP: I know it sounds extravagant, and it is, but we have to realize these are people who were putting in long, long hours — twelve hours or more a day.

Claudia Rocco: Yes, but that's why they had all of that, because they didn't go home. Jimmy [Biondolillo], would sometimes go to lunch with me. You would meet me at noon. He was coming from being out all night long [working]. He would call me and say, “Can you have lunch? You want to get together?” Then he would come meet me and we would go eat something, and he had worked all night.

That’s how that worked. They worked all night.

HHSP: Those are the details that get lost. Audiences don’t really know the hard work and long hours that for into producing television and how much work goes on behind the scenes. Whenever somebody leaves the cast at Saturday Night Live, the first thing they talk about are the long, long, long hours and the endless days. And I think it's just something most people don’t think when it comes to the industry.

Claudia Rocco: When I was with the unit managers, one of my jobs was with SNL too. So, I used to have to go up to the 17th floor and pick things up, or get things, and I would go up there 17th floor and 30 Rock and I would go in and I would walk past offices and I would see a bunch of jeans and clothes in piles on the floor. One time, I saw the blinds had been chewed up, like a dog had been chewing up the blinds, and I would see that and I'd be like, “What goes on up here?” [laughter]. This was their offices on the 17th floor. Obviously, they didn't go home. They were there all night, working, so they just kind of lived there.

HHSP: There was some confusion over how the show was cancelled. It seemed that then-NBC President Fred Silverman told different stories to the cast and the media. Were you in the position to give us any insight?

Claudia Rocco: No, I didn't know. Ken [Aymong] and Bo {Newman] may have known that since they were in charge of the money for the show.

How it Was Then and How it is Now

HHSP: Still, you were in the center of production during an exciting time in network broadcasting.

Claudia Rocco: I always say I'm so lucky to work in the Golden Age of TV . . .  no computers, no cell phones, all done by hand. You walked around, you saw, and you met people and you learned. So I met and learned. Now, you just sit at a desk with a laptop. You don't see anybody.

HHSP: Distribution lists for memos today are just one click and done. People don’t appreciate the extra work that had to be done back then and how personal computers changed all that. I’ve worked at some colleges for years and have never met some of the people I email on a regular basis.

Claudia Rocco: No, you don't. What I would do is like I would take all the forms . . . and all the orders that Ken [Aymong] and Bob [Newman] had. I had to physically go to 30 Rock and go to all the different areas and put this paperwork in . . . for this stuff that they needed. This is how I met tons of people at NBC in different departments, but it was all the texts that I had to go around to and I learned all that stuff, you know, all the studio areas. I loved all that. So, Bob would always say, “Claudia, please come back. Don't be gone for two hours!” He was strict. He was very strict. I learned a lot from him, though. Ken was new to this, so Ken was a lot more relaxed, and was trying to absorb everything and take it all in because he was new to this.

HHSP: Right. It was right near the beginning of a long career for him.

Claudia Rocco: I think [before NBC] he was involved with another company that was owned by RCA. He always wanted to work in TV. That's another person that at night I would sit and talk to. I'd sit and talk to him and my last bus was at 7:30 and I won't tell you how many times I missed that last bus to Queens! We would be talking in the office and I loved it because I was learning, absorbing all of this stuff that I was on a production unit on a show.

HHSP: As a Communications major, I would have killed to be in your position not long after college, and your curiosity and people-skills served you well. You lasted for nearly five decades! I understand you ended up as a senior sales operations specialist for NBC. What were you selling?

Claudia Rocco: I wasn't selling. I put all the commercials on TV. I worked the last two Olympics from my house. I worked Beijing and Tokyo from my house.

HHSP: I'm a little bit curious being outside the industry? How exactly does get that done? How do you get those commercials scheduled?

Claudia Rocco: It's now it's all digital now. It's all just sent in digitally.

HHSP: So, you actually have the files of the commercials you're forwarding to the clients?

Claudia Rocco: I don't get them. They get sent in from the ad agency, the production house, they send it all in. It’s all digital.

HHSP: I have to wonder how things changed over the years.

Claudia Rocco: I’ll tell you a quick story. Years and years ago, before this was all digital, the commercials were in little boxes, little red boxes put on the belt, you know the belt? [Note: “The belt” was a conveyor-type device used to load up commercials for broadcast]. So, my biggest thrill was when people would come to NBC, like friends to look around, I would take them up to videotape behind the belt to watch the commercials. The little box, the two little red doors would open, two rods would come in, pull the tape out, run the commercial, doors close up, conveyor belt moves on to the next spot.

HHSP: So, those were being played off VHS cartridges?

Claudia Rocco:  No, the big ones.

HHSP:  Oh, OK. Right, the three-quarter inch cartridges were broadcast standard [VHS has 1/2 in tape] I still a few of those 3/4-in U-Matic tapes around up in my attic from my days in tape operations [See Aeolus 13 Umbra: The New York Network: A Peek into Broadcasting Past].

An old 3/4 inch videotape from 1987 (author's collection).
Claudia Rocco:  Right. Then, eventually, it all became digital. I didn't see or touch anything. I just would schedule everything and I work with the ad agencies to see what they needed to run. But the last two Olympics, I never thought I’d be able to work an Olympics from your house on a laptop, and we did.

HHSP:  It's just mind boggling what we can do now versus how we had to do it 30 and 40 years ago.

Claudia Rocco: Before that, when I worked Olympics, you were there, seven days a week, in the building. In fact, I'll tell you a real quick story. I had tickets on a Saturday night for Neil Young at Garden. I was working Olympics. I had to be in the office on Saturday. The show was at 8 o’clock and I said, “Oh, 8 o’clock. It's not a problem. I'll get there.” Sure enough, last minute changes and I missed almost the first hour of Neil Young at the garden. Now I'm five minutes away from the Garden, 30 Rock to 34th Street. I'm five minutes away. I missed the first hour of Neil Young.

HHSP: I bet that just killed you!

Claudia Rocco:  Well, that was a good excuse to see him again.

HHSP: Well, those ad placements are what pay the bills. I got to say, Claudia, you are a good advertisement for NBC and for why to get into broadcast television. When thinking of broadcasting, most people just think of the on-air positions or the technical positions behind the camera, but there’s a whole infrastructure behind it and production and sales are really at the hub of what makes it all turn.

Thank you so much for your time today Claudia and painting picture for us what the inner workings of behind the show were like.

Claudia Rocco: This was the best, thank you.

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Concluding Thoughts

Rocco today (LinkedIn)
One aspect of the Hot Hero Sandwich Project is how things got done in broadcasting, both technically and practically, in the years before personal desktop computers and digital cameras and other technology. From commercials on 3/4 inch videocassettes loaded up via an automated conveyor belt to actually having to distribute by hand all the memos and invoices to every department scattered about the NBC production facilities, broadcasting professionals today might better appreciate the technological advantages that help satisfy broadcasting demands that have multiplied geometrically in the decades since 1979.

For up and coming Broadcasting and Communication majors, Claudia’s experience reinforces the importance of internships at network-affiliated channels — and especially those in major markets. As much as it is required of actors and writers, if you want a job where the action is, you have to be where the action is.

As the Hot Hero Sandwich Project dives deeper into the show, we discover that although not quite as glamorous as being in front of the camera, or writing for it, production is at the very hub of all entertainment and everything revolves around that. Nevertheless, the relationship between the various departments is more akin to a tapestry. Pull one thread and the whole thing begins to unwind. No one thread is more important than the others and when working together the finished result is a collaborative effort.

So, the next time you see a music performance from the show, a celebrity interview, or even some expensive sets, like the fabulous neon Hot Hero Sandwich sign, someone made the arrangements, got the paperwork done, got the equipment rented, and knew how to navigate the busy broadcasting work environment of a major national network to get the work done  that person was Claudia Rocco.
 
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Thursday, November 28, 2024

Hot Hero Sandwich Project Archives: TV Critic Tom Shales’ 1979 Preview

by G. Jack Urso

Washington Post TV Critic Tom Shales in the 1970s (Tom Zito/Little, Brown).

Tom Shales (1944-2044) was a longtime influential TV critic and writer whose insightful critiques both pleased and occasional punished the programs we loved. Whether one agreed with him or not, or appreciate the pointed barbs he might throw out at a particularly less than pleasing production, Shales’ always did his homework and had deep contacts within the entertainment industry, which we see here in this Nov. 19, 1979, article for The Washington Post, where he was the longtime chief television critic from 1977 to 2010.

In this article, Shales provides quotes from creators/producers Bruce and Carole Hart and producer Howard Malley and reveals Hot Hero Sandwich’s budget to be over $1 million, or approximately $4,347,988.98 in 2024 dollars, making it one of the most expensive shows for NBC at the time.

The last four paragraphs of the article, though unrelated to Hot Hero Sandwich, have been retained for preserving the integrity of this primary source material. Original spelling has been retained as printed.
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NBC's Ambitious 'Hot Hero Sandwich'

By Tom Shales

November 10, 1979

No sooner had an FCC task force knocked the networks for poor children's programming than, shazbot, CBS unveiled "Going Places" and NBC, after weeks of delay, announced the premiere of "Hot Hero Sandwich," both ambitious new efforts for young viewers. The timing is coincidental but fortuitous.

"Going Places," an "On the Road" for the young, was shown Tuesday by 166 of the 200 CBS affiliates. A CBS News spokesman says a second show is "in the can" but unless network executives give the high sign, "Going Places" goes nowhere from here.

NBC's, "Hot Hero Sandwich," however, premieres today at noon on Channel 4 (and 185 of the 216 other NBC stations) and it is going everywhere, including bananas, cocunuts, hog-wild and right through the roof. This sparkling skyrocket constitutes one giant leap for kidkind.

A frantic fact-and-fiction hour, "Sandwich" was created by Bruce and Carole Hart and mixes sketches about the hills and valleys of adolescence -- problems of adjustment, identity, and complexion -- with songs, animation and candid interviews that clinical psychologist Thomas J. Cottle conducts with celebrities. They tell how they made it from 12 to 20 without turning into pillars of salt.

On the first show, Bruce Jenner shows a previously latent credibility when recalling the first time he kissed a girl or how he suffered from dyslexia, a learning disorder, when young. Donna Pescow ("Angie") confesses she hit her mother when mom told her she was getting a divorce. And Erik Estrada remembers a boyhood friend who overdosed on heroin when Estrada was barely into his teens and living in Spanish Harlem.

Preachiness and teachiness are avoided as the program goes from somersaults to handstands to cartwheels with a spectacular battery of video effects. Some 40 hours of editing go into a single one-hour show.

The Harts, married for 16 years, executive-produce the program, which is shot in New York at Studio 8-H (making it a kind of "Saturday Afternoon Live") but edited in Los Angeles. Bruce says that future programs will bring up such topics as pre-marital sex, masturbation, "and nuclear power as well." Both say they hope youngsters and parents will watch the show together, a wish that isn't as fanciful as it might sound.

"We found that 38 percent of the audience at that time on a Saturday are adults," says Carole. "The network categorizes them as 'passive' because they don't necessarily control the set (meaning, kids pick the programs), but we think we can get their attention. Because of the pacing, the animation and the high-energy comedy, even 6-year-olds can have a good time with it."

The high-energy comedy is supplied mainly by a stock company of seven likable youngsters who will be premature candidates for cardiac arrest if they don't settle down. An opening sketch on nicknames is a loud mess, but a later one about compassion for parents hums harmoniously. Of the group, a pudgy blonde cupcake named Denny Dillon seems the standout. She'll go far.

Celebrities to be interviewed on future programs include Barbara Walters, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Beverly Sills and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Obviously all systems are go on this ball of fire, and NBC should consider producing more shows than the planned 11 -- unless this is just a face-saving PR project, that is.

What no one wants to say about the show is how much it costs to produce it. "The network has specifically asked us not to discuss it," says producer Howard Malley. "It looks more expensive than it is," says Bruce Hart. "Over $1 million," is all a network spokesman will offer.

And Mary Alice Dwyer, director of children's programs, says from New York, "a lot. So much that that's why we'd rather not say."

In the area of "pro-social" children's programming, NBC and CBS have lagged behind ABC and its "Afterschool Specials." ABC also airs a Sunday morning show, "Kids Are People Too," but its virtue is dubious. The educational value lies primarily in training children how to be noisy and appreciative studio audiences.

Michael Young, the program's host, appears to suffer from a terminal case of ice cubes down the shorts, and the celebrities interviewed usually are plugging ABC shows or talking fan mag drivel.

It is both naive and cynical to think networks want to put on idiotic children's programs. The problem is largely with advertisers who at first flocked to the good-deed shows for their prestige value, then in sizable numbers abandoned them for more cost-effective junk. And so they underwrite hours and hours of crummy, dumb cartoons.

"Hot Hero Sandwich" is another hop, skip and jump in the right direction, and an invigorating one at that. It is also more entertaining than seven out of ten shows in NBC's prime time schedule, suggesting that once the networks and sponsors get kids' TV straightened out, they might pause to remember that adults are people too. 'Love for Rent'

We the television viewers of America deserve a higher form of pandering than "Love for Rent," the ABC Sunday night movie, at 9 on Channel 7, that even as brainless, lurid mellowdrama proves strictly lou-zay.

Comely Anjanette Comer and woebegone Lisa Eilbacher star in the tale of two sisters in lewd L.A. who are shocked out of their skins when customers of the escort service that employs them demand certain extra services.

The audience is baited with threats that the girls will be forced into sex with strangers and a subplot involving a psycho (poor Eugene Roche) who wants to whomp hookers. Rhonda Fleming makes a minimal appearance as the owner of the escort operation.

Far seamier than steamy, the movie dawdles pointlessly along between the highlight screams and attacks. Impressionable viewers who see enough of these unsavory TV movies about hookers and rapes must get an awfully morbid idea of what sex is. To watch "Love for Rent" is to be party to an act of communal degradation.


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Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Hot Hero Sandwich Clip Job! The Breaks with Barbara Feldon

by G. Jack Urso 


While an overlooked aspect of Hot Hero Sandwich, one of the show's little gems is Barbara Feldon’s voiceovers for the commercial breaks. A trained actress at HB Studio in New York City, Feldon‘s early work modeling and a popular commercial for Top Brass hair pomade where she practically purred the sales pitch. Feldon then made her mark in broadcasting history as Agent 99 in Get Smart and appearances in Laugh-In and many of the top network shows of the era. Snagging Feldon, along with America’s Top 40’s Casey Kasem for the introductions, ensured not only instantly recognizable and professional voice work, but also meant a higher budget. Producers Bruce and Carole Hart could have had the actors do the voiceovers, or opted for any number of available voice talent and paid scale, but the Harts knew that quality is not measured in the big strokes, but in the attention to details.

Feldon's Top Brass commercial from the 1960s.

After the first couple episodes, Feldon settles in and begins to have fun, matching her tone to the segments preceding the break, running the spectrum from happy to sad to tearful to sexy. As a former radio announcer who has also done narration and spoken word, and a public speaking instructor, I admire Feldon’s voice work for her articulation, breath control, intonation, and emotive delivery. They are worth studying for any budding voiceover artist.

The videos below from Hot Hero Sandwich Central contain each of the five breaks from the episode indicated. 

  
Episode 1                                              Episode 2

  
Episode 3                                              Episode 4

  
Episode 5                                              Episode 6

  
Episode 7                                              Episode 8

  
Episode 9                                              Episode 10

Episode 11
 
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Monday, November 11, 2024

Hot Hero Sandwich: Episode 10 Scene-by-Scene

by G. Jack Urso

Originally published January 24, 2024, on www.Aeolus13Umbra.com, with updates Nov. 11, 2024.


Broadcast Date: Jan. 19, 1980.

Interviews: LeVar Burton, Michael Learned, McLean Stevenson, and Stockard Channing, in conversation with Dr. Tom Cottle.

Musical Guest: Rex Smith and The Hot Hero Band.

Themes: Favorite teachers, school dances, first crushes, dating, interracial dating, being popular.  

Note: The links below go to the corresponding video clips hosted on Hot Hero Sandwich Central!

Scenes 
 


10.1. Interview Segment: Stockard Channing and McLean Stevenson talk about how they viewed themselves as kids, in conversation with Dr. Tom Cottle.

10.2. Nightmare High Segment: Class Clown Pageant. Andrew Duncan in character as the host of the Nightmare High Class Clown Pageant. The contestants include: Joel “Frogface” Feinstein (Paul O'Keefe), Elizabeth Ann “Swifty” LaCava (Denny Dillon), and Larry “Goober Nuts” Wachowski (Matt McCoy).

10.3. Interview Segment: LeVar Burton discusses a recurring dream, in conversation with Dr. Tom Cottle.

10.4: Animation Segment: “Have You Seen the Stars Tonite.” (Paul Kantner)
 

10.5. Interview Segment: LeVar Burton, Michael Learned, and McLean Stevenson talk about their favorite teachers, in conversation with Dr. Tom Cottle.

10.6. Nightmare High Segment: The coach (Frankie Faison) gives a locker room pep talk for the guys attending the school dance. Also with L. Michael Craig, Matt McCoy, Paul O’Keefe, and Jarrett Smithwrick.

10.7. Interview Segment: McLean Stevenson and Michael Learned talk about school dances and first dates, in conversation with Dr. Tom Cottle.

10. 8. Music Performance: Rex Smith and the Hot Hero Band, "Tonight."

10.9. Sketch: Nightmare High Excuse of the Week. Nan-Lynn Nelson couldn’t type up her English paper because her neighbor thinks she was tap dancing.

10.10. What's In, What's Out Segment: Teens answer the question what’s the in thing to do in 1979.

10.11. Interview Segment: McLean Stevenson, Stockard Channing, Michael Learned, and LeVar Burton discuss what they liked to do as kids, in conversation with Dr. Tom Cottle.

10.12. What's In, What's Out Segment: Teens give the latest slang words for “when someone’s out of it.”
 
 
10.13. Interview Segment: Stockard Channing discusses her fantasies as a child, in conversation with Dr. Tom Cottle.

10.14. Sketch: Stanley Dipstyck finally encounters the Puberty Fairy.

10.15. Interview Segment: Michael Learned discusses whether she felt “lovable” as a young teen,” in conversation with Dr. Tom Cottle.

10.16. Animation Segment: Kid Dream! A boy dreams of being led onto airplane, flying across Atlantic Ocean to New York, meeting his parents (Uncle Sam and Lady Liberty), and having flashbacks of life in the Netherlands, but his real parents bring back down to Earth with the truth.

10.17. Interview Segment: LeVar Burton talks about moving to Germany as a child and not having seen his father since the sixth grade, in conversation with Dr. Tom Cottle.


10.18. Interview Segment: LeVar Burton talks about growing up and having doubts about meeting someone special, Michael Learned talks about dating, in conversation with Dr. Tom Cottle.

10.19. Ted’s Café Segment (Part 1 of 3): Denny Dillon’s character seeks help for the refreshment committee for the Victory Party. Nan-Lynn Nelson’s and L. Michael Craig’s characters feud over where to get the burgers and how to cook — but is something more simmering between these two?

10.20. Interview Segment: LeVar Burton discusses whether he was ever afraid of girls growing up, in conversation with Dr. Tom Cottle.

10.21. Short Film: A montage of Black girls and women set to Stevie Wonder's “Ebony Eyes,” plus a woman doing snippets of the poem "Phenomenal Woman," plus  another poem, “I’m gonna draw me a Black Madonna.”

10.22. Ted’s Café Segment (Part 2 of 3): Nan-Lynn Nelson’s and L. Michael Craig’s characters apologize after their fight, which leads to flirting, and then they agree to go on date to the Victory Dance.

10.23. Interview Segment: McLean Stevenson discusses one of his first loves as a teenager, who was from a different religion than his, in conversation with Dr. Tom Cottle.


10.24. Interview Segment: LeVar Burton talks about whether there was any opposition from his family to him dating a white girl, in conversation with Dr. Tom Cottle.

10.25. Ted’s Café Segment (Part 3 of 3): Nan-Lynn Nelson’s and L. Michael Craig’s characters realize they don’t have anything besides cooking in common and decide not to go to the party together, but remain friends. Also, with Vicky Dawson, Denny Dillon, Matt McCoy, and Jarrett Smithwrick.

10.26. Interview Segment: Stockard Channing talks about the importance of teenagers pursing their passions and interests, Michael Learned discusses the pressure to be a “nice” girl as a teenager, in conversation with Dr. Tom Cottle.

10.27. Music Performance: Rex Smith performs “Sooner or Later,” a song about a teen having to wait for romance, from his hit 1979 TV movie of the same name produced by Hot Hero Sandwich’s Bruce and Carole Hart.

 


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Hot Hero Sandwich series writer Sherry Coben’s personal archival copy of Episode 10.
Sadly, we will likely never see a DVD release of the series.

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