Triad Today

In St. Elsewhere, a doctor’s wife is killed in an accident, and he is left to raise his autistic son, who seldom speaks. In Dolphin’s Cove, a man’s wife dies, and his daughter is so traumatized that she cannot speak. In the original pilot for Touched by an Angel, the lead character has died in an accident and becomes an angel whose first assignment is to care for an autistic girl who won’t speak. In Dead Like Me, the Grim Reaper takes up residence in Seattle. In Providence, a plastic surgeon’s dead mother appears in every episode, and in the premier episode of HawthoRNe, a divorced nurse tries to prevent a stage four cancer patient from committing suicide. 

Over a period of about 40 years, these compelling stories about dealing with death and disability came from the heart and heartbreak of the same man, my friend John Masius, one of Hollywood’s most talented and decorated storytellers. John died on Sept. 13 at the age of 75 following a year-long battle with ALS. He is survived by a remarkable body of work, a remarkable ex-wife, and three remarkable children.

Born in the suburbs of New York City, John displayed a talent for writing early on, yet never enjoyed the process, telling me, “Writing’s very difficult for me. It’s very hard. I don’t jump at the prospect of doing it, like homework. For me, it’s like having an exam paper due.” John attended Penn, then moved west and graduated from UCLA with, of all things, an M.B.A. He waited tables at an L.A. restaurant to make ends meet, where one day he happened to serve Bruce Paltrow, then the producer of The White Shadow for MTM and CBS. Paltrow hired John to be a gopher, and years later promoted him to writer/producer on Shadow and St. Elsewhere.

I first got to know John (“Maysh” to his friends) when I was writing a series of articles about St. Elsewhere, and then when I interviewed him for the first volume of my “TV Creators” series of books. He also appeared on a panel that I moderated in 2000 on “Women in Drama” for the Television Academy, which featured the actresses and creators of several new primetime series headlined by women. I particularly wanted John to participate because it was his groundbreaking show Providence which launched a new era of TV dramas for the 21st century, starring women in the lead role.

Maysh was a complex man of strong principles who didn’t suffer fools well, but sometimes his principles put him at odds with those in power. That’s what happened with Touched by an Angel. John and his wife, Ellen Bry (an actress and ensemble star in St. Elsewhere), had three children—a daughter and two sons, both of whom were diagnosed with autism. While interviewing him for my book, Maysh told me, “At that time I was pretty angry at God, and I still don’t really understand what kind of God does terrible things to small kids. The other thing I couldn’t handle was people, in their urge to comfort us, would say, ‘God doesn’t give you more than you can handle,’ which Ellen and I found incredibly disturbing.” 

Ellen’s and John’s struggle to cope was an impetus for Touched by an Angel, where in the pilot episode, angel Monica (Roma Downey), who had died in the 1920’s was now comforting her terminally ill, 80-year-old “daughter” who she had saved seven decades earlier. Monica pleads with the Angel of Death to end her daughter’s suffering, but he refuses, saying, “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle,” to which Monica replies, “That’s a lot of crap.” Executives at CBS felt that Monica’s retort was too dark and told John to remove that line of dialogue. Maysh refused, his pilot never aired, and he was fired from the series.

Several years later John resurrected his career when he created Providence for NBC, followed by HawthoRNe for TNT, both of which were well received by audiences and critics alike. And though Maysh told me, “critically acclaimed doesn’t pay the mortgage,” he was, nevertheless, richly rewarded by his peers and admirers, picking up numerous honors including two Emmys, a Peabody, the Humanitas Prize, a Writers Guild award, and several People’s Choice awards.  

Over the years Maysh and I kept in touch by email and phone, but the last time I saw him in person was on the set of HawthoRNe, where he greeted my wife Pam and me warmly and with his trademark impish smile. As I think of that day, I recall his response to a question I had asked him during our conversations for “TV Creators.”

Jim: Suppose there was no such thing as on-screen credits for TV shows. How would someone know they had just watched a John Masius show?

John: They’d get some laughs and probably be moved. They’d also be twisted up a little bit emotionally. They’d be manipulated because I would have fu#ked with their heads. [laughs]

Rest in peace, my perverse and principled friend.

My late cousin Hannah Campbell was the first accomplished writer in our extended family. In the 1960s, her articles appeared in a number of national publications, including Cosmopolitan for which she penned a monthly column titled “Why Did They Name it?” about the origins of famous brands and companies. Later, she compiled her research into a book by the same name and sent me a signed copy. I was fascinated by her stories, like the one about a young man who was working in a Virginia drug store when he fell in love with the daughter of the store owner. The young suitor was fired, traveled west, and invented an innovative soft drink which he named after the drug store owner — a medical doctor named Pepper.

Cousin Hannah sparked my interest in writing and advertising, both which would later serve me well when, in addition to producing TV shows, I also ran a small ad agency where I was occasionally called upon to create product names and slogans. Along the way, I learned a valuable lesson about branding from an unlikely source. In May 1977, Bert Lance, director of the OMB under President Jimmy Carter, told Nation’s Business magazine, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Coincidentally, that same year, Nashville designer Bill Holley created a logo for a brand new restaurant chain that would serve good old country cookin’. The logo featured an illustration of an old man sitting in a wooden chair and leaning on a large barrel. The name adjacent to the logo was Cracker Barrel. It was a welcoming sign to hungry travelers for 56 years…until late last month when company CEO Julie Masino forgot to heed Bert Lance’s advice. She and her ad agency decided to go for a more modern image, and suddenly the old timer, his chair, and the barrel all disappeared. Needless to say, the Cracker Barrel universe was collectively pissed. Social media blew up, and company stock prices tumbled. Within days, Masino reversed course and restored the old logo.

Change for change’s sake is never a good idea, yet there always seems to be some corporate marketing executive who’s willing to fiddle with success in order to justify his salary and impress the boss. For example, Master Card removed its own name from its iconic orange and yellow intersecting circles. Petco removed the dog and cat from its logo. And Eskimo Pie changed its name to Edy’s Pie as if we’d all care that the frozen treat was created by Joseph Edy.    

Remember “New Coke” from 1985? That disaster was the creation of a corporate executive who thought it would be a good idea to add more sugar to Coke’s formula in order to better compete with Pepsi. CEO Robert Goiuzeta told reporters at the time that it was “the surest move we ever made.” Loyal Coke drinkers disagreed. According to the History Channel, the company received 8,000 complaint calls per day, and shares of stock were headed in the wrong direction. Within months, New Coke was out and “Coca-Cola Classic” was born. The Coke fiasco should have served as a warning to all future beverage makers, but a few folks at Budweiser didn’t get the memo.

In 2023, Bud Light featured social media personality Dylan Mulvaney in a promotional video. The only problem was that Mulvaney is transgender. Millions of conservative Bud drinkers boycotted the parent company, stock prices fell by 26%, and Bud Light lost its top spot to Modelo after having been number one for 20 years. Alissa Heinerscheid, who had been VP of marketing for less than a year, was responsible for changing Bud Light’s gender, saying she was only trying to make the drink “more inclusive.” Not surprisingly, Heinerscheid was fired.

Of course, inclusivity can be a good thing if a name or logo has become offensive to consumers. Uncle Ben’s rice, Aunt Jemima Pancake mix, and the Washington Redskins all come to mind. But it makes no business sense to trash a name or image just for the sake of creativity. If my cousin Hannah were alive today, she would probably be writing a sequel to “Why Did They Name It?” and title it, “Why Did They Change It?” or,” WTF is Wrong with Cracker Barrel?”

There are only a handful of stand-up comedians whose approach to the genre has been transformative, among them, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Jerry Seinfeld, Rodney Dangerfield, and more recently Nate Bargatze and Leanne Morgan. Pryor revolutionized modern-day storytelling. Carlin was a master wordsmith. Seinfeld took observation comedy to new heights. Dangerfield morphed his tag line into a career of one-liners. Bargatze and his signature pauses elevated the art of self-deprecation, and Leanne Morgan is proving that women everywhere can identify with a mom from the South. And just when we thought there was no more new comedy ground to break, Andy Huggins appears on the scene.

Huggins is the Rodney Dangerfield of geriatrics. Rodney built his entire act from one premise, and so too has Andy. For Dangerfield, it was “I get no respect.” For Huggins, it is “It’s tough getting old.” I can relate to Andy’s comedy. He is 75 years old and I’m nearly 72. But his brand of humor also makes young people laugh out loud. Just take a look at his act on YouTube and you’ll see why his universal appeal is going viral.

Andy is funny because of his material and his delivery. His pauses before the joke line are as artful as Bargatze’s, and his one-liners are not one-dimensional. They aren’t just about his age; rather, they are commentaries on current trends.

 

“As far as social media goes, you can follow me on the bulletin board at Kroger’s.”

“I’m not on Twitter, but I will stop people on the street and tell them shit they’re not interested in.”

Those kinds of jokes point to what happens when we age, but they also poke fun at the absurdity of our reliance on posting and sharing every thought that comes into our heads.

Andy also makes fun of phrases and trends that inhabit our politically correct world.

“I have an inner child, but I don’t think it’s mine.”

“I’m woke…for about another five hours.”

“I took a quiz on Facebook called, ‘What’s your spirit animal?’ I got ‘Extinct.’”

“I’m 75 years old, and life expectancy for a man is 76. Life expectancy for a woman is 81. I figure if I transition…”

Earlier this year, Andy signed on to do his first comedy special, which can be seen on Apple TV and Prime Video. Yet despite his meteoric rise to fame, Andy is not an overnight success. He has been performing stand-up for 40 years. Asked by NPR’s Scott Simon about developing an act around his advanced age, Huggins said, “It’s what I know better than anything at the moment. I write what I’m familiar with, and age is inescapable. Age is a fact of life.”

It’s also a fact that audiences love Andy’s brand of humor. And, thanks to the internet and a plethora of streaming services, he’s reaching more and more people every day. “It’s so deeply satisfying,” he told Simon. “So deeply reassuring that I’ve got a useful purpose while I’m still alive.”

Truth is, none of us knows how much time we have left, yet we hope that we can make the most of it and somehow make a lasting contribution. Young Andy Huggins has done that in a big way.

“A couple of Saturdays ago, before I went onstage, I asked the club manager, ‘How much time do I have?’ He said, ‘Can’t be much.’”

We all hope that club manager is wrong.

On April 29, 1962, while speaking to a group of Nobel Prize winners at the White House, President John Kennedy said:

 “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”

The geniuses who were assembled that night got the joke and revered its meaning. That’s because we Americans have always prized the fact that our presidents have possessed the intellect and character to lead our country and to be a respected leader in the world. In short, the President must have a command of knowledge about world and national events, and how history has shaped those events. Yes, Gerald Ford got flustered in a debate and misspoke about Russia’s dominance over Poland. And yes, George W. Bush had a tendency to mangle the English language. But, for the most part, we could always count on our presidents to act, think, and speak with a sense of reason and decorum, until now that is.

From the moment he began his first term in office, Donald Trump has shown a total disregard for the truth and a total lack of knowledge about anything but golf. The New York Times, CNN, and other news outlets employed fact-checkers who have kept a running list of every lie Trump told which, since 2017 has exceeded 50,000. Sometimes his lies have resulted from going off script in order to brag about something he says he did (but didn’t actually do). However, most of the time he says things that are untrue because he just doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Trump once said that it was Canadians who burned down the White House during the War of 1812. He called Belgium “a beautiful city.”  When asked what the Declaration of Independence is about, he said it was about love. He claimed that President Andrew Jackson was “really angry” about the Civil War which would have been a good trick if Jackson hadn’t died 16 years before the War started. Speaking of the Civil War, Trump said “It ended in 1869 or whatever,” and that the bloodiest battle occurred on the site of his golf course along the Potomac River. In fact, not a single battle took place on that site. Speaking at a Black History Month luncheon, Trump indicated that Frederick Douglass was still alive. And he was surprised to learn from his staff that Lincoln was a Republican. It’s no wonder that Ron Filipowski, a former federal prosecutor, said Trump “couldn’t pass a 7th grade U.S. history exam.”

But Trump’s most recent gaffe came last week while meeting with West African leaders at the White House. He praised Liberian President Joseph Boakai for speaking “such good English.” The Liberian delegation took offense at that remark and with good reason. Liberia was founded by Americans, their currency is the U.S. dollar, and the official language of Liberia is — you guessed it — ENGLISH. In addition to Trump having no knowledge of history or geo-politics, his idiotic comment to President Boakai also raised concerns among some groups that Trump is, at heart, a racist.

After all, it was Trump who once referred to African nations as “shit-hole countries.” And since beginning his second term as president, he has drastically cut or eliminated scores of programs designed to honor or assist African Americans, ranging from purging the names of Black leaders from federal documents, to criticizing Juneteenth, eliminating DEI initiatives on college campuses and in the workplace, and potentially throwing 13 million people off of their healthcare coverage.

Whether intentional or not, whether racist or not, Trump’s total lack of knowledge is having a devastating effect on our daily lives here at home and on our image abroad. The sad thing is that 77 million Americans returned him to the White House last year, not caring about his lies, his crimes, or his demeanor. They are seemingly OK with having a rude, functionally illiterate man lead our country who revels in all of the things that he doesn’t know.  If ignorance is bliss, then Donald Trump is the happiest man in America. By the way, the phrase “Ignorance is Bliss” originated with Thomas Gray, a poet who was born in 1716…or as Trump would say, during the Civil War.

In 2017, 13-year-old Tyler Hughes of Clemmons went for a ride on his ATV. The road was slick, and the ATV flipped over on him. Tyler survived the crash, but the roll bar severed his left arm. Fortunately, surgeons were able to re-attach his arm, but the near-death experience didn‘t deter the boy. While recovering from surgery, Tyler told a Winston-Salem Journal reporter, “I can‘t wait to start riding again.”

What happened to young Tyler was not a rare occurrence. According to Reuters, about 11,000 such accidents occur every year resulting in 900 deaths annually, and that‘s just involving ATVs. Dirt bikes are also a source of tragedy.

Last month 14-year-old Cam Trail died in a motorcross competition when he collided in mid-air with another biker. The event was hosted by East Bend Motorsports and held in Yadkin County. Afterward, Emiee Murray of King who organized a GoFundMe page for Cam‘s family said, “He [Cam] inspired others to chase their dreams.” Dreams of what? An early death? No matter because the day after Cam‘s death, the competition continued as if nothing had happened. Chad Mabe of Tobaccoville had no problem letting his 13-year-old son get back on the track saying, “What happened last night could have happened in any sport.” Another parent, Jarrett Gold wrote on Facebook, “It scares me to death it could happen to my child…but God says, ‘Trust Me.‘” Are you kidding me? I‘m no Bible scholar, but from what I‘ve read God never indicated that 13- and 14-year-old boys should ride ATVs or race dirt bikes.

There‘s a reason why society imposes age restrictions on products and activities that could pose a threat to the well-being of children. Here in North Carolina, for example, you must be 18 to purchase cigarettes (in 2019, Congress raised the age to purchase tobacco products to the age of 21), and 21 to buy alcohol. You must be 16 to apply for a driver‘s license. You must be at least 17 years old to join the armed forces and you can‘t play in the concussion-ridden NFL unless you‘ve been out of high school for three years. You must be 21 to purchase a handgun, and 18 to compete at the top NASCAR races. The reason for these and other restrictions is that children and young teens are not yet fully developed physically, emotionally, or mentally, and need time to mature before embarking on high-risk activities.

Nevertheless, organizers of motorsports and ATV events will tell you that they are not to blame for accidents and injuries because parents have signed a consent form. The problem is that parental consent is not designed to circumvent the law and here in North Carolina, a parent whose child is injured or killed while operating any kind of motorized vehicle or equipment, is guilty of a Class E felony which is punishable by up to seven years in prison. Specifically, N.C. statute 14-318.4, section (a4) states, “A parent or any other person providing care to or supervision of a child less than 16 years of age whose willful act or grossly negligent omission in the care of the child shows a reckless disregard for human life is guilty of a Class E felony if the act or omission results in serious bodily injury to the child.” Translation? If you let a child engage in dangerous behavior, you are guilty of child abuse.

I can understand why a 13-year-old who just had his arm severed in an ATV accident would say “I can‘t wait to start riding again.” That‘s because children don‘t know any better.

Their parents should.

Over 80 television series premiered in 1975, and that’s a lot considering there were only three TV networks at the time. Back then there was no internet, no streaming, and very few cable offerings. But of the many sitcoms and dramas that bowed 50 years ago, only a few had a significant impact on the industry and pop culture. Here, in alphabetical order, are eight of the more memorable ones.

Baretta Robert Blake starred as Detective Tony Baretta whose best pal was a cockatoo named Fred. The series ran for three seasons on ABC and could have gone longer had Blake not made the decision to leave. The show featured some memorable catchphrases, like when Baretta would say to a criminal, “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.” It was a prophetic and ironic warning because Blake himself would later be accused of murdering his wife, and spent a year in jail while awaiting trial. He was eventually acquitted.

Barney Miller In the annals of broadcasting, there have only been a few sitcoms set in a police station and this was the best. Hal Linden played the titular role in this ABC series, where he was in charge of a diverse detective squad set in The Big Apple. The series launched on January 23 and aired its last episode in May 1978, but has been in re-runs ever since. I once asked Linden why the show had held up so well for so long. “It was a brilliantly written show. It didn’t settle for cheap jokes. Instead, it was all about the frailties and humor of human behavior. We were also ahead of our time in presenting topics that are still relevant today.”

The Jeffersons Created by Norman Lear as a spin-off from All in the Family, The Jeffersons starred Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Sanford as George and Louise, next-door neighbors to Archie and Edith Bunker. George found success in creating a chain of dry cleaning stores, allowing the couple to move on up to “a penthouse in the sky.” It was also the first prime-time series to depict a prosperous African American family. I met Isabel and Sherman in the summer of 1977 and found them to be delightful individuals. Their groundbreaking series ran for 11 seasons on CBS.

One Day at a Time This Norman Lear creation was a hybrid sitcom, meaning that it was full of laughs, but also covered serious and controversial topics. It starred Bonnie Franklin as a recently divorced mom with two teenage daughters. I first met Bonnie at a CBS junket two years after the show premiered, but we were reunited for a TV Moms event that I produced in 2008 which also featured Family Ties star Meredith Baxter. That evening the audience learned the back story of One Day at a Time. Meredith’s real-life mom, Whitney Blake had pitched a show to Lear titled 38/13 based on her experiences as a 38-year-old single mom raising 18-year-old Meredith. Lear bought the show and retitled it One Day at a Time which lasted for nine years on the Tiffany network.

Starsky and Hutch While police dramas have been a staple of prime-time television since 1949, the buddy cop genre came late to the game. I Spy (1965) was about two secret agents and Adam 12 (1968) featured a pair of uniformed cops riding around Los Angeles. But Starsky and Hutch was the first buddy cop drama series about two plainclothes detectives. The series which aired for four seasons on ABC starred Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul in the title roles. The show also made it cool to drive a two-toned Ford Gran Torino.

Switch This CBS series only lasted three seasons, but it was memorable for two reasons. First, it paired two established stars, Eddie Albert and Robert Wagner, as private detectives, and second, after being cancelled, it propelled Wagner into his most famous role as Jonathan Hart in the long-running hit show Hart to Hart for ABC. I first met Wagner when he was promoting Switch, but we reunited 30 years later when RJ was in Winston-Salem to help raise money for the Humane Society, and we have stayed in touch ever since.

Welcome Back Kotter It is rare for a hit show to be created by its star (Jack Webb did it with Dragnet) and even more rare for a stand-up comedian to create a sitcom in which he is the series lead, but that’s what Gabe Kaplan did in bringing Welcome Back Kotter to ABC. Kaplan played Gabe Kotter a teacher at the fictional James Buchanan High School in Brooklyn. In the series, Kotter, an alum of Buchanan, teaches a class of rag-tag academic underperformers who call themselves Sweathogs. The leader of the gang was a young John Travolta in his break-out role as Vinnie Barbarino. Kotter which faded after four seasons, launched Travolta’s film career which began with Carrie in 1976.

Wonder Woman There are lots of ways to judge how successful a TV show is. Some achieve high ratings. Some are hailed by the critics. But very few series can boast that its main character is still one of the most popular Halloween costumes nearly a half-century after the show went off the air. Wonder Woman, starring Lynda Carter (as superhero Diana Prince), ran for three seasons on ABC, the first of which was set during World War II, and the final two seasons were set in present day. There was never any explanation for why the show jumped 30 years ahead, but hey, Wonder Woman was an Amazon who never ages so we all bought into the time warp. It was fun to watch Wonder Woman deflect bullets with her magic bracelet and throw her lasso on bad guys to make them confess their crimes. It was also fun for us males in the audience to stare at Carter’s iconic, low-cut costume, and fantasize about visiting Paradise Island where women are in charge, kind of like at my house.

1975 certainly wasn’t the greatest year for launching prime-time television shows, but it wasn’t without some bright spots, like the eight series that I’ve just mentioned. And, thanks to a myriad of nostalgia TV channels and streaming platforms, you can go through a time warp of your own to enjoy most all of these classic series.

 
 

Sports enthusiasts often speculate as to how great a particular player would have been had he not gotten injured early on in his career. Such discussions are pointless and resolve nothing, except perhaps when the sport under consideration is politics, and only then when we have definitive measurements at our disposal to make an educated analysis. John Edwards, Gary Hart, and Cal Cunningham all come to mind. All three were on a clear path to higher office, but their careers were derailed by self-inflicted injuries caused by a lapse in judgement. And that brings me to Derwin Montgomery.

At age 21, Derwin became the youngest person ever elected to Winston-Salem City Council where he served for three terms. That catapulted him to the State House of Representatives and a 2020 run for Congress in the newly formed 6th district. He was outmatched and outspent in the Democratic primary losing to Kathy Manning who would go on to win the general election. Nevertheless, Derwin’s political star was still on the rise.

I first met Derwin in February 2020 when he appeared on Triad Today to discuss his candidacy for Congress. He was extremely articulate and informed about the issues, chief among them were healthcare, pre-K education, and the plight of the homeless. The latter was a topic in his wheelhouse because, at the time, he was running the Winston-Salem based Bethesda Center for the Homeless.

“The work I do every day with the homeless really shapes my political understanding, and how I approach policy through the lens of equity and justice,” he told me.

Under Derwin’s leadership, the center provided meals, shelter, and social resources to hundreds of homeless people.

“I once came across a veteran who had been dishonorably discharged from the military for behavioral health issues which were never addressed, so we helped him navigate through the system to get the support he needed.”

I’ve interviewed tens of thousands of people over the past 50 years, and I’ve developed a pretty good bullshit meter. In my opinion, Derwin was the real deal. He was passionate about causes that affect everyday folks, and he displayed honest sincerity in his answers. As it turns out my bullshit meter wasn’t properly calibrated that day because, unbeknownst to anyone, in the two years prior to our interview, Derwin had been taking luxury vacations, visiting gentlemen’s clubs, driving an expensive car, and funneling money to his media company, all at the expense of the homeless people he was supposed to be helping.

In 2023 Montgomery was convicted of 15 counts of program fraud, having charged over $26,000 to Bethesda for his various private outings. He was facing up to 10 years in prison but instead cut a plea deal to avoid jail. The terms of his deal meant that 14 of the 15 counts were dismissed, he was put on 5 years probation, and ordered to make restitution and pay fines totaling $60,000. Late last month he was arrested for violating the terms of his probation by failing to make his most recent monthly payment, leaving him $5,500 in arrears. He is now in federal custody.

I am conflicted about the plight of Derwin Montgomery. On the one hand, he embezzled money from an agency that helps homeless folks, and he deserved to be punished for it. On the other hand, he did a lot to help those folks while he ran Bethesda Center. I also question the logic of the Court imposing hefty fines which made it more difficult for Derwin to make direct restitution. Finally, it is difficult for me to admit that I was entirely wrong about his sincerity and his compassion for those less fortunate. Yes, he abused his position and broke the law, but he did a lot of good for a lot of people, so perhaps he can work his way through this mess and one day manage to regain his status as a valued public servant. Call me crazy, but I still believe in the guy.