36- "HELLO, DOLLY!" FOR TV- PART ONE

In Television, Nothing Is Definite

If you write a novel and no publisher will publish it, you could

publish it yourself for about a thousand bucks. Write a play and you could probably find a playhouse somewhere that will put it on. Got an idea for a movie; get a camera and shoot it.

        Television is a totally different animal. The distributors control the market—the networks, the streaming services, the syndicators and the stations.. The productions cost money and marketing is expensive. Without the support of a distributor, your project will never see the light of day; to wit:

         I was sitting in my office as VP of Production at Merv Griffin Entertainment, searching my brain for a project to pitch to the networks, something they might buy and agree to put on the air.  Out of nowhere I got a flash:  How about doing a remake of “Hello, Dolly!” starring Dolly Parton?

She would be great in the lead role. We might have to change the scene of the action from a suburb of New York to a suburb of Nashville.  “Dolly plays Dolly” was a great promotional hook.

        The Broadway musical was one of the most successful in theatrical history.  The song, “Hello, Dolly”, was among the most played recordings in the world. And Dolly Parton was- and still is- a major recording star, the diva of country music.

Where would I pitch it? And how?

It was near the Christmas holidays and not too many network people were still in their offices. I thought it would be perfect for NBC. On impulse, I made a direct call to Jeff Zucker, who at that time was the head of programming for NBC Television. Years later, after being fired

by NBC, he was hired as the top guy at CNN, where he was later fired, which demonstrates another axiom of “The Business”: Once you join the executive ranks  you can only fail upward.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Back to NBC the week before Christmas. I made a cold call to Jeff Zucker, As luck would have it, Jeff answered the phone himself. We had never met. I wasn’t even sure he had ever heard my name. I gave him a capsule summary of my credits and that I was running Merv’s TV company.

Then I told him the idea: “’Hello. Dolly’ starring Dolly Parton”!

He loved it! He jumped at it! He couldn’t grab it fast enough. He told me he would have someone in his movie department call me right back.

Within the hour, his executive in charge of movies called to tell me how much he shared the enthusiasm of his boss (Surprise!) NBC wanted it! They had to have it! I mustn’t go anywhere else with it! Did I have the rights? I lied and said I did.

       Jerry Herman, who wrote the score, had been a frequent guest on Merv’s talk show. I got Jerry’s number from Merv’s files   and called him at his home in Beverly Hills. He was thrilled to hear about it. Carol Channng was the first DollyLevi, but there had been many others, including Barbra Streisand, who starred in the movie, which was only  moderately successful and had not pleased Jerry. He loved the idea of Dolly Parton. This would be his chance to get “HELLO, DOLLY!” done his way.

My next call was to Dolly Parton’s agent at The William Morris Agency. We were old friends, so I knew I could count on him to give me an honest reading. He loved the idea and promised to persuade Dolly to do it.

 He called back the same day to say that Dolly was in.

We all met at Jerry Herman’s  house in The Hollywood Hills- Dolly, Jerry, Dolly’s agent and the NBC movie guy whose name I have forgotten along with those of the numerous network executives who come and go with the vagaries of management changes.

I had worked with Dolly once before when she was a guest on a series I produced for NBC, “BARBARA MANDRELL AND THE MANDRELL SISTERS”. Though she would not remember me, that gave me credibility in her world.

Dolly told me how she first heard of the musical. She was on her way into New York for a concert date and saw these big billboards along the highway emblazoned with “HELLO, DOLLY”. She thought they had been put up to welcome her to town.

Dolly was so enthusiastic, she even went into a studio and paid to record one of the songs from the score of the musical. I have the CD of her wonderful rendition of “BEFORE THE PARADE PASSES BY”, never sold and, I assume, rarely heard, if ever. It is one of my most prized possessions.

Everyone agreed that this was a fabulous idea. Merv was delirious. I started thinking about the script. I knew the show very well, having seen it about 10 times because of my long relationship with Carol Channing. Every time Carol did a revival, we were there.

I studied the script of the musical, relistened to the original cast album, screened the Barbra Streisand version, read the play script of “THE MATCHMAKER” by Thornton Wilder, on which the musical was based, and screened the film version of the original straight play starring Shirley Booth. I began to visualize how we would do the television film, which would be closer to the original Broadway show.

NBC was on board. Jerry Herman was ecstatic. Dolly Parton was excited to be expanding her horizons. Merv was in Heaven. We were a “GO”!

Is that what you think? That’s what I thought. Surprise!

                 (TO BE CONTINUED)

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