Episode 21- Bobby Darin

How To Kill A Hit

Creating a variety show for a performer may be compared to making a tailor made suit. One size does not fit all. The show must be designed to fit the star’s strengths and avoid areas where he or she is weak. That was how Ilson and Chambers successfully created series for THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS, TONY ORLANDO AND DAWN and BARBARA MANDRELL AND THE MANDRELL SISTERS, the last successful variety series (1980-82).  THE BOBBY DARIN AMUSEMENT COMPANY should have been a long-running hit, but thereby hangs a tale.

       NBC ordered a series starring the singer, Bobby Darin, as a summer replacement for The Dean Martin Show. Darin had assembled a huge following in the music world. He was the heir presumptive to the mantle of Frank Sinatra.

      A dynamic performer, and a great musician, Bobby first came to prominence with juvenile hits like SPLISH SPLASH (“I was takin’ a bath”) and DREAM LOVER.

      As he matured he had a gift for reinventing standards. His recording of MACK THE KNIFE is one of the great All-Time Classics. He was also a fine actor,  having been nominated for an Academy Award for his role in CAPTAIN NEWMAN, M.D.

     He continually reinvented himself in pursuit of fame and fortune. After starting out as a rock ‘n roller, he started billing himself as Bob Darin, cashing in on the popularity of folk music. He had hits like “If I Were A Carepenter”.

         When that fad had passed, he went back to doing what he did better than anybody-- the swinging, finger-snapping  performer he is remembered as today.

 His real name was Walden Robert Cassotto. His story was told in the film starring Kevin Spacey. Bobby discovered at the age of 31 that the woman he thought was his mother was actually his grandmother and  the woman he thought was his sister was actually his mother. Yes, he was complicated!

     The problem Ilson and I faced was, how to build a hit around a singer. Series starring singers like Perry Como and Dinah Shore were no longer getting great numbers. Somehow, our show had to offer more than music. We decided to surround Darin with comedy.

     He did not have the most engaging personality. He had a reputation for being contentious and cocky. During the promotion period, NBC gave us photographs of Bobby to select for use in publicity. In all the photos, Bobby looked grim or without emotion. We told NBC to use a photo of him smiling. I still have the memo they sent back, “We can’t find a photo of Bobby smiling.”

      Bobby was a very complex person. He was a tough, distrustful street kid who grew up in The Bronx without a father. But he was also a sensitive, self-educated man who loved literature, music, art and chess. He had a strong social conscience and was politically active.

     How were we going to make this brash, suspicious, combative personality into someone charming and lovable that audiences would look forward to spending an hour with every week?

     One night, watching Johnny Carson,  we saw a comic named Steve Landesberg do a hysterical routine as a psychiatrist, complete with a Viennese accent.  He appeared on Carson several times and was always a knockout.

       We hit on the idea of confronting Bobby’s least attractive personality traits head on. We cast Landesberg as Bobby’s psychiatrist.  We started every show with Bobby singing an opening number  that

really knocked it out of the park.  On the applause, as Bobby was taking his bows, Steve would enter as the Viennese psychiatrist, applauding and interrupting Bobby’s hello’s. He would then launch into a devastating analysis of Bobby’s character flaws, complimenting him in a backhand way. He might say, “Bobby, you really know how to belt a song.” Bobby was about to thank him for the compliment, but Steve continued,  “You come across really nice for a cocky little guy. When you are singing, I almost forget you got no personality.”

      He would destroy Bobby to waves of laughter. You could feel the love for Darin welling up from the audience. It was a time-honored way to win an audience’s affection for a star. Jack Benny used it for decades, being insulted serially by Rochester, Don Wilson, Dennis Day, Mary Livingston, and sundry guest stars.  It made Benny the most loved comedy star in radio and TV.

     It worked the same kind of magic for Darin. The audience loved him. We were home free. We added other comedians in the show. Bobby himself had a gift for comedy; he did a great Groucho.

         We put in a recurring sketch of two neighborhood guys shooting the bull on the front stoop back in The Bronx. Bobby played who he might have been had he spent his life as Walden Robert Cassotto. And Bobby had his turns singing the standards.We called our show THE BOBBY DARIN AMUSEMENT COMPANY.

       We did 7 episodes. It became the runaway hit of that summer. It

Was one of the rare summer replacement shows to get an order to join The Big Boys on the primetime schedule in the regular season. THE BOBBY DARIN AMUSEMENT COMPANY was set to go back on the air in January.

      Then as often happens with a hit, the star took over and everything changed. When you start a new show, the star is insecure and relies on his producers to make a hit. The network, too, is totally behind the producer. Once the show is a hit, the star takes over and the network goes with the money.

       Bobby called a meeting with us. He had three demands about the show:: First, get rid of that German psychiatrist at the top of the show. Bobby resented being insulted and humiliated every week; He refused to listen to our argument how that spot wins the audience’s sympathy and affection for him. He hated it. Steve Landesberg was out of the show. Fortunately. Steve went on to win three Emmy nominations for his long-running role on BARNEY MILLER.

      The star’s second demand? The show would have a new name-- THE BOBBY DARIN SHOW. Third, there would be much less comedy and much more singing. As Bobby said, “At least if I fail, I will fail doing it my way.” He got his wish. The revised series was cancelled after 13 episodes. He had managed to kill a hit.

     Bobby was an enormous musical talent. Had he lived, he might have inherited the mantle of  Ol’ Blue Eyes. He died much too young at the age of 37, the victim of complications from rheumatic fever.

    He might also have had a television career as the star of THE BOBBBY DARIN AMUSEMENT COMPANY.  Apparently, he had never heard the wisdom of Mike Todd, a great showman, who once said, “When a show is a hit, don’t even change the ushers.”

NEXT:  GEORGE CARLIN

He Couldn’t Save A Sinking Ship