Peter Jennings had a 'radar for women' and 'would sleep with a tree if it had a skirt', while a young Bill O' Reilly thought he was too good to drink champagne with his show's crew, according to TV network vet Daniel Morgan.
These are just some of the things Morgan learned while working behind the scenes for 50 years as a stage manager for CBS, ABC and NBC - and with the networks' biggest talents. Morgan, 69, said he threw 'everyone' under the bus for his new memoir Last Stage Manager Standing, detailing a career where 'every day was like One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'.
'I had the pleasure and misfortune of working with probably almost everyone who was involved with New York television at one time,' he told Branching Out TV. The TV veteran, who left the business in 2013, said he learned early on that the people behind the camera are 'far more fascinating' than those who make it on to our television screens. But Morgan still found plenty to share about these on-air personalities that became staples of TV in the twentieth century.
Beloved late ABC anchor Jennings had no problem when it came to women, Morgan wrote in an excerpt obtained by the New York Post.
'In between wives and girlfriends, he did very well,' wrote Morgan, who revealed Jennings required the studio to be 48 degrees at all times. 'He was a good-looking guy - tall, intelligent, well-spoken.' Morgan recalled one memory when Jennings, who had just recently returned from a trip, was talking about how country singer Barbara Mandrell was 'naughty', his smile 'like the Cheshire cat'. Jennings later said to his makeup artist, 'And what about those photos Sheena Easton sent me?'
'The smile on his face,' Morgan wrote. 'I could see all his teeth!'
Morgan also wrote about another night when both Jennings and UN Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, who also happened to be married to his ex-wife, were in the studio at the same time. 'They were literally 30 feet apart, with a thin door separating them', Morgan wrote in an excerpt obtained by The Reporters. Morgan said he had a stagehand tape a piece of cardboard over the window 'to create a no man's land'.
O'Reilly was anchoring at local New York affiliate WCBS-TV that night when a producer invited the entire crew, Morgan included, to have a glass of champagne before midnight struck. 'Bill was beside himself,' Morgan wrote. 'He didn't think that the crew was "worthy" enough to have a glass of cheap-a** champagne with the producers or himself.' 'Bill's panties were really in a knot, and he was muttering to himself as he walked around the newsroom.'
In his half-century working in television, Morgan had his share of unusual tasks. While working on the soap opera Search for Tomorrow in the 1970s, a producer told Morgan his job for the day was to make sure the show's star, Morgan Fairchild, was wearing a bra. 'I guess the day or week before, she hadn't been wearing one and there were problems with Standards and Practices,' Morgan wrote. He went into her dressing room and started talking to her about cats 'as a pretext to look down her blouse'. 'She was wearing a sheer something,' he wrote. 'But she was wearing something.' And while working on Martha Stewart's show, Morgan was told one day that the most important part of his job was to make sure Stewart 'knew where her salt and pepper are at all times'. 'A week with Martha was a month without sunshine,' Morgan wrote about his short time working on her show.
O'Reilly wasn't Morgan's only story from working CBS' New Year's Eve Time Square coverage for 10 years. Morgan remembers one specific night when the control room 'burst into chaos' after the cameraman failed to get the ball drop in his shot. 'Everyone was screaming, "Get the ball! The f****** ball isn't dropping!', he wrote. The camera, Morgan said, had been framed and focused on a full moon all night long.
Morgan said Bob Keeshan, who played the title character of the long-running CBS children's program Captain Kangaroo, was known for his temper. 'I came back from lunch one day and I noticed he'd gotten angry and annihilated this bird cage, Morgan wrote. 'I said to a stagehand, "Should we call the ASPCA?" He said, "Don't worry. It was a plastic canary.'
Despite his tantrums, Morgan said Keeshan was always generous at Christmas time. 'Each year he would find a hot gift for everyone,' he wrote. 'Like a Texas Instruments calculator or a Casio watch.'
Whether the experiences were good, bad or just downright a little crazy, Morgan wrote that he missed the bygone era of television news and entertainment he once helped create. 'I was blessed in the sense that, you know, people were still personalities,' he wrote. 'Unfortunately, they've become robots.'
ABOUT THE BOOK LAST STAGE MANAGER STANDING
Daniel B. Morgan, a veteran TV Stage Manager with over 50 years of experience, has completed his first book “Last Stage Manager Standing”: a poignant recall of all those years behind the scenes and is a vibrantly crafted work that flows beautifully through the mind and heart.
On how he would describe his book, author Daniel B. Morgan summed it up succinctly with, “Each day was like 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.” Published by New York City-based Page Publishing, Daniel B. Morgan’s poignant tale gives you his insight into how the production crew works together to run and direct a show. He attempts to explain the producer’s indecisions, and offers up tasty vignettes of the talent’s foibles. Television is one of the most significant and notable inventions of the Twentieth century. Over the years, people have seen an overabundance of glitz and glamour on television. Homo sapiens used to turn on televisions in their living rooms to enjoy their TV dinners while watching the early movie, now we are pulverized by news and fluff. But what is really going on behind the camera?
“Last Stage Manager Standing” exposes the trade secrets and the politics behind the television industry.