Word: nbc
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...spoken, charming. But there she is, sitting in her Manhattan office, comparing the race among the three network morning shows to a pitched battle worthy of the Iliad. "The competition is ferocious," McGrady says. "It's war games, the combat zone." Several blocks away, Steve Friedman, executive producer of NBC's Today show, seems like ideal fishing-trip company: funny, good-hearted, gregarious. But turn to the subject of Good Morning America and Friedman climbs the ramparts. "They want us to die," he says, voice rising. "I'm telling you, it's war, and we're out there to kill...
...year, the Today show has beaten or tied its ABC competitor five weeks in the past three months, thus breaking GMA's 163-week hold on first place. Though Today still spends most of its time as a close second,* the taste of victory brings fresh confidence to the NBC corridors. "We think we will be No. 1," says Today Co-Host Jane Pauley. "We've got the momentum...
Today's steady ratings' climb can be traced partly to the growing success of NBC's prime-time fare; according to a broadcasting maxim, some morning viewers watch whatever station they left the dial on the night before. The show has also profited from hitting the road. Pauley and Co-Host Bryant Gumbel broadcast the program live from Rome for a week in early April, then Gumbel traveled solo to Viet Nam to mark the tenth anniversary of the Communist takeover. In late May the Today stars and staff -- 47 people in all -- traveled 2,500 miles on a specially...
...their teamwork on the road proved, Gumbel and Pauley go together like bagels and cream cheese. Gumbel, who hosted NBC's professional football coverage before replacing Tom Brokaw on Today in 1982, has rapidly grown into an incisive interviewer adept at cutting through mushy answers. During an interview with Louisiana's slick Governor Edwin Edwards last month, for example, Gumbel kept sweeping away the politician's charming patter to discuss the impact of Edwards' recent indictment on conspiracy charges. For her part, Pauley displays a more empathetic style, laced with a self-deprecating wit, that works best when...
Occasionally, Hartman's folksiness curdles into a gee-whizzy naivete, but the man who prides himself on posing the questions the viewer would ask is not given to self-doubt. Told of a comment by NBC's Friedman that "David Hartman is getting older and more tired," Hartman does not bat an eye. "Well, I am getting older," he says as he finishes his stretching exercises on the floor of his ABC office. "That's quite an observation." But is David Hartman weary? "I'm just as excited about this job as I ever was." So saying, Hartman...