Word: paar
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Wide World is a rotating sequence of four formats-a week each of Jack Paar, Dick Cavett, comedy and mystery, with two nights of rock music thrown in as a fillip. The package includes just about everything, it seems, but trained seals beating out The Star-Spangled Banner on the xylophone. Its first six weeks have ABC executives glowing-and crowing. Says Michael Eisner, vice president in charge of program development: "Philosophically, I am wildly enthusiastic. And it is working." Translation: Eisner likes the format and so do a lot of viewers...
...Paar, at least, seems certain of his success. "God," he said with customary familiarity, "is kind to pregnant women, drunks and Jack Paar...
...many ways Paar's vulnerability, his corniness and even his egocentricity are more appealing than the bland professionalism of a Johnny Carson, the empty-headed grin of a Merv Griffin, and the sometimes annoying coldness of a Dick Cavett (who will also have one week each month on ABC's Wide World of Entertainment). If Paar irritates, he also occasionally engages and surprises. "One thing Paar had, which I think he still has," says Robert Carman, the show's executive producer, "is his hold over people, the fear that if you turn him off, you might miss...
There is room, certainly, for fresh faces and fresh views on the talk shows, which have settled into a deep rut of predictability, with the same authors selling the same books and the same actors shilling for the same movies. In selecting guests, Paar has announced a policy of "avoid the flock." Along with the not-so-golden oldies, his first week offered a new and funny comic, Kelly Monteith, and a remarkable sleeper in the person of Michael Meyers, a young doctor and sometime actor with an endless supply of hospital horror stories...
Like Cavett, however, Paar's real problem may be the ratings, which ABC used to cut back Cavett despite considerable protest from his fans. So far, even allowing for curiosity and nostalgia, the reaction to Paar has been less than stunning in New York and Los Angeles, the only two cities that have overnight reports. Preliminary reports, however, are inconclusive, and Carson, who seems to spend as little time as possible on his own show, does not have a permanent lease on the Nielsens...