For What It's Worth

The Green They Really Love

Brad Markowitz is a broadcast journalist, Hollywood writer/producer with extensive TV credits and a regular contributor to "For What It's Worth." 

So you’re one of those rare, public-minded individuals with a burning desire to change the way America thinks about the dangers of climate change and global warming.  More to the point, you want to change how the big media companies think about these things, because you’re savvy enough to understand that these corporate giants hold huge sway over the perceptions of the general public.

Easier to move a mountain than to get the Big Boys to come around, you may think. It reminds me of Kermit the Frog, of Muppet fame, who used to sing, “It’s Not Easy Being Green.”  Well, these days Kermit might be surprised.  You know the world is singing a different tune when the simplest surf of the ‘net takes you past any number of environmentally themed zones.  The Help Wanted sections are dominated by ‘green jobs.’  And the surest sign of the greening of America – there isn’t a corporate website within a Green Mile without an environmentally conscious campaign being vigorously promoted.  But don’t be fooled.  The green they really love is still the shade that graces the good ol’ dollar bill.  Same as it ever was…

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.  It might actually be a good thing.  When the enlightened self interest of the media conglomerates dovetails with what’s good for rain forests and polar bears, that’s a powerful brand of synergy.  But there’s a big difference between a studio or network saying that they care about the environment, and that entity making movies or TV shows that actually promote the concept. 

The Man Who Came to Dinner, Every Night

Brad Markowitz is a broadcast journalist, Hollywood writer/producer with extensive TV credits and a regular contributor to "For What It's Worth."

If he could report on his own death, Walter Cronkite wouldn’t waste any time with the glowing tributes and teary remembrances of him that are sprouting up like mushrooms on every news program, radio show and blog (including this one).  No, Walter would have simply noted the relevant facts of a life that saw him rise from small town newspaper reporter to the man millions of Americans invited electronically into their homes every night as “The Most Trusted Man in America”  – 45 years in journalism, 19 years as the anchor of the CBS Evening News and 92 years on the planet.  All in that distinctive baritone voice with the rolling cadence.  No frills.  No editorial comment.  No bias.  And no trace of the other abbreviated word that starts with a ‘b’ and ends with an ‘s.’ 

Well, I am no Walter Cronkite, even though my first and perhaps most successful career was as a TV journalist.  And so I will embellish the plain facts of this legend’s passing with a couple of personal observations.  One dates back to 1973, and the tumultuous time of Watergate and Richard Nixon.   As a sophomore in high school, I and a few classmates achieved the true definition of ‘sophomoric’ by making our social studies class project be an original play about the saga, cleverly titled (or so we thought) “Waterfence!”  And yes, the exclamation point was part of the title. 

The major figures in the piece were of course the figures in the scandal, but with their names purposely mangled, for satiric purposes.  There was John Hitchmall and J. Gordon Giddy and Tricky Nick Dixon.  And the narrator… that, of course was the famous newsman, Cronker Walltight, played by none other than Yours Truly.  In the one and only command performance of this opus, I appeared with slicked back hair and a fake moustache and did a passable (or so I’m told) imitation of Uncle Walter’s voice. 

Jan Rubes: The End of an "Incredible Journey"

Brad Markowitz is a Hollywood writer/producer with extensive TV credits. This is his first contribution to "For What It's Worth."

The older you get, the more friends you lose. I haven’t spoken to Jan Rubes in years, but when I heard that the venerable actor had passed away at the age of 89, it certainly felt like a death in the family, as it did when the ultimate pro, actor Lane Smith passed on a couple of years ago.  Lane and Jan were both part of the cast of my first television series, “Kay O’Brien,” a medical show about a young female surgeon, which had a short but distinguished run on CBS back in the late eighties.

Jan may not be a household name, but millions would instantly recognize his stern visage and distinctive, accented voice lecturing Harrison Ford about “the gun of the hand” in his portrayal of the Amish patriarch in Peter Weir’s film “Witness.”  Jan in fact had a long and distinguished performing career, both as an actor and an opera singer.

A native of Czechoslovakia, Jan emigrated to Canada as a young man and got his first film credit in 1963 for “The Incredible Journey.”  It was a full 25 years later that I first met him as one of the candidates to play the wise, senior teaching surgeon on “Kay O’Brien.”  Our executive producer, (the inimitable Bill Asher) and everyone else agreed he was perfect for the part.  As myself and my then writing partner Bryce Zabel were absolute neophytes at writing and producing network TV shows, Jan’s authoritative voice and demeanor made it seem as if he were patiently teaching us, even when he was reading words we’d written for him.