DANCE FEVER-PART ONE

Before There Was "Dancing With The Stars"

       Merv Griffin and I did not speak for 10 years and here’s how it happened:

     Ilson/Chambers had dissolved and I was now producing on my own. Casablanca Records was in the disco business and made a deal with Merv to underwrite building a special set for two of his talk show programs to promote their new  album, cashing in on the success of  “SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER”, both the film and the Bee Gees album.

    

 

Once those shows were taped, Merv still had the set Casablanca had paid for. Being a canny Irishman, he decided not to let that set go to waste. He would use it to make a pilot for a dance show.   

      His model was a format that was popular in the earliest days of television- “The Arthur Murray Dance Party”.  Arthur Murry Dance Studios were where you went to learn the arcane skills of social dancing. You can still find some of them around today.

        TV was brand new. Audiences were happy to watch almost anything that moved. Arthur and his wife, Kathryn hosted a show on which they and their celebrity guests just danced around the studio. That was the show.

   

  Merv sold 20^th Century Fox on the idea of a  half-hour weekly dance  show.  He intended to recreate The Arthur Murray Dance Party with celebs dancing to a disco beat. The studio insisted, however, that times had changed and the show had to have a format and a host.

     Merv and I had become friends after working together on his late night show on CBS. He brought me on to create a format, find a host and produce a pilot.

 

    At first I turned down the offer because I was taking my family on a long holiday to our country home in France. Turning down the offer  only heightened the studio’s determination to have me. It is one of the truisms of television: If you can afford to say No, then they definitely must have you.

      I was scheduled to leave on my holiday in two weeks  Merv and 20th  insisted I had plenty of time to tape the pilot before my trip to France. I could edit the show on my return a month later. We decided to call our show “DANCE FEVER”. Merv and I set to work,  exploring different formats and checking out possible hosts while William Morris put together the deal. It was tricky, because the agency represented both parties, Merv and me, one of whom represented considerably more clout at The Agency.

     My representative at The William Morris Agency negotiated an exceptional deal for me, which is only possible when “they” want you more than you want “them”. I would be paid a fee for producing the pilot. If the show went to series, I would also be paid  a substantial weekly royalty for every show produced. I would also be paid 15% of the net profits from the series.

      Make a note: I was to receive 15% of the net profits from all shows produced. What’s more, I would not be required to show up at the studio or render any further services on the series beyond producing and editing the pilot. I would also receive a “Created by” credit on all episodes of the series. A great deal!

       That was the deal I thought William Morris had made for me with Merv Griffin Entertainment.  That was when I learned that Merv was not all that he seemed to be. He seemed to be a jovial, harmless, easy going, generous guy. I was naïve. I should have known better. Merv did not get to be a multi-millionaire tycoon by being a pussycat.

    

Elsewhere I have written about a meeting I once heard about that took place with Nat Lefkowitz, one of the elder statesmen of The William Morris Agency. Agents were reporting on the status of different deals. Nat asked one young agent if they had a deal with a certain client. “Yes, we do,” said the kid. ”How do you know?” asked Nat. “Because,” replied the kid, “he said so.” To which Nat replied, “Remember this, Kid. A deal isn’t a deal until it’s a deal!”  Anyone who plans on a career in show business should have this comment engraved where they can see it every day.

      A deal memo is a short memorandum of the essentials of an agreement.  Every deal starts with a simple deal memo.  William Morris could show no deal memo of my deal.  With nothing in writing, it was my word against the President of Merv’s company and guess whose side he was on.

      It led to a very ugly confrontation between me and Merv, resulting in our not speaking to one another for 10 years.

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