The Florida Times-Unlon/Jacksonville Journal, Jacksonville, Saturday, December 12,1987 C-5 TV-lTs Skipper Ed recovering from heart bypass surgery Ed McCuUers may be off the air for now, but he still watches Satur day morning cartoons. The Jacksonville broadcast veter an, best known as Skipper Ed to lo cal youngsters, is recuperating at home after bypass surgery and complications that had friends wor ried. McCullers, who underwent bypass surgery nine years ago, began having chest pains several weeks ago. One night at midnight, he asked his wife, Dana, to take him to Baptist Medical Center. The surgery was routine, he said, but when the operation was finished, doctors couldn’t close him up. “My heart had swollen. They had to leave me open a couple of days. As a result of that, there was dam age to the lungs. The good news is that the condition is reversible." McCullers' has been using oxygen since his return home, but is en couraged since doctors have re duced the amount twice. His next visit to the doctor is Jan. 4, and, if- all goes well, he’s hopes to return to • TV-12 and The Skipper Ed Show soon after that. In his absence, the Saturday show has been hosted by producer Nancy Elder, known on the air as Miss Nancy. “She’s such a sweetheart," he said. “I watch her every Saturday morning.’’ What’s particularly tough on McCullers right now is watching all ’ the involvement by TV-12 to help the Dorcas Drake toy drive. He has been involved in the annual toy give-away for more than 10 years. • •• Speaking of drives, public station WJCT TV : 7 just finished its third On TV Television editor Nancy McAlister Pledge-Free December. This is the time once a year when viewers are asked to send in checks or else watch several days of pleading. Viewers pledged the drive’s $100,000 target rather than endure the pitches. That’s what a lot of us would do if we could to avoid most commercials on the air these days. Carlton Higginbotham, TV-7 mem bership director, said he was wor ried about the December drive, mostly because the pledge-free idea usually works for a year or two, but then people get blase. Gainesville’s WUFT TV-5 had to come on the air ,for a while this month. "Ours worked," he said, although he called it a qualified success. The reason: People promised the money but now the wait is on to see if they ac tually come through with their checks. There will be on-air pitches in March, when the station attracts most of its new members. • e* WJKS TV-17 has taken a lot of flak from competitors about its heli copter. The big joke has been the most likely place to find it is in a local school yard. But the machine paid off during coverage of last week’s brush fires. Newswatch 17 was the only one with live aerial pictures of the blazes on the Dec. 4 evening news. • •• Is it just me, or did Don Johnson come off as a real schlemiel on this week’s Barbara Walters special? He looked particularly minor league af ter the interview with Sean Con nery ... NBC’s Tom Brokaw is in the major leagues after his exclu sive interview with Mikhail Gorba chev, followed by moderating the presidential debates. CBS, miffed that Gorbachev denied its request for an interview, didn’t even bother to run the follow-up conversation with President Reagan in prime time last week. The network de layed the president’s talk until after the 11 p.m. news, which angered some news junkies. They weren’t too pleased either when WJXT TV-4 decided to delay CBS’ summit analysis until after $100,000 Pyra mid. at 11:30 p.m. ... And why did TV-17 bump the NBC Niglitiy News on Thursday night? I realize Gorba chev’s press conference threw off the schedule by a half-hour, but we could have done without one night of Sanford and Son. Hot rumors: The biggest one cir culating right now is about Gannett Inc. and its winning bid to buy WTLV TV-12. Some insiders are predicting that, once Gannett re ceives approval from the FCC, the way is paved for TV-12 to realign it self with NBC. (The station went with ABC when that network was at its peak in the early 1980s.) Gan nett is a powerful member of the NBC family since three of its sta tions are affiliates. Of course, the rumor about NBC has circulated before. Now that the network is riding high in the rat ings, the assumption is the network wants to get back on a VHF station — despite the fact cable has equalized signal strength and Media General has poured millions into TV-17 to make it a stronger con tender. The frustration of NBC holding such powerful cards has to be taking its toll. More than one staffer at TV-17 has said, "If they’re going to do something, 1 just wish they’d do it and get it over with so we can move on." If a switch does happen some where down the line, the audience will be the big loser. Some people out there are just now recovering from the confusion of the last affili ation switch. • •• Of course, the one to gain the most from such a switch would be TV-4. Stability always has been the station’s strong suit, even when its network has come up short (like now). That makes an item in a Washington Post column this week all the more interesting. It-said that CBS recently showed a brief inter est in a Florida station for sale. In siders at Post-Newsweek and Harte-Hanks said that CBS did, in fact, ask Harte-Hanks to send facts and figures about TV-12 and sister station Greensboro, N.C., station WFMY, which, also was for sale. But one theory is that the primary inter- 1 TV MOVIES ! (From Page C-4) I 6:00 (HE) The Buddy Holly Story p.m (1978) Gary Busey, Don Stroud. The life story of rock ‘n' roll pioneer Buddy Holly, who skyrocketed to fame in the 1950s before his un timely death at the age of 22. In stereo. ‘PG’ (113 min.) Good. (1975) Richard Jaeckel, Jennifer Bishop. An ecology-minded fisher man tries to protect great white sharks from would-be hunters. (120 min.) Fair. (HB5) The Color Purple (1985) Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover. Steven Spielberg directed this ad aptation of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel focusing on 30 years in the tumultuous life of a black woman in the rural South. In stereo. ‘PG-13’ (CC) (152 min.) 10:30 (SM) Modern Girls (1986) Daphne p.m. Zuniga, Virginia Madsen, One night in the lives of three young women as they make the rounds at Los Angeles rock clubs. In ster eo. ’PG-13’ (84 min.) Poor. 11:00 (USA) The Red House (1947) Ed- p.m. ward G. Robinson, Lon McCallis- ter. A mysterious house holds a deep, dark secret which is discov ered by a pair of young lovers. (120 min.) Good MS Cujo (1983) Dee Wallace, lent. (SHB) The Warrior And The Sor-' ceress (1984) David Carradine, Lgke Askew. A holy warrior be comes involved in the rivalry be tween clans that are seeking con trol of a village well. ’R’ (76 min ) Poor. 12:30 O Trenchcoat (1983) rMargot a.m Kidder, Robert Hays While vaca tioning in Malta, circumstances propel a would-be mystery writer Ed McCullers Hopes to return to TV-12 est was in Greensboro (a CBS affili ate), and Harte-Hanks was anxious to sell the two as a package. Now, fellow viewers, contemplate how that would have shaken up the Jacksonville TV market. • •• Gannett will have a presence in Jacksonville TV in more ways than one. TV-17 recently purchased rights to USA TODAY — The Na tion’s Television Show. The TV ver sion of Gannett’s national newspa per is set to have its debut next fall in syndication. It will run week- nights at either 7 or 7:30 p.m. The acquisition represents “a sub stantial investment” for the NBC af filiate, although the station is .not disclosing any dollar figures, said Bill White, general manager of TV- 17. So far, the program is still in a developmental stdge. What is known is that there will be four hosts, and the format will be similar to the newspaper’s — sections on lifestyle, business, sports, etc. The- series will originate out of four cities and will be transmitted to stations about an hour before air time. The TV program is from GTG Marketing, a joint company of for mer NBC president Grant Tinker and Gannett. Heading up the show is Steve Friedman, former Todaj show executive. “We have great faith in Grant Tinker,” White said. "We feel almost assured nothing will come out of hi.* place that is not first class ant. highly successful." Bob Sutton, president pf Media General’s broadcast division, callec the acquisition “a great victory.” Local insiders say the primary sta tion bidding against TV-17 for the show was TV-4. It came down to a matter of price. Some estimate TV- 17 will pay more than $10,000 a week, which would make it the highest-priced series in Jacksonville TV. Sutton said the actual price paid “is no where near that,” how ever, or what TV-12 paid for The Cosby Show. Gaimett’s purchase of TV-12 will not affect TV-l7’s purchase of the TV version of USA TODAY, Sutton said. "We have a contract.” • •• Speaking of TV-12’s sale, a local group of investors made a bid for the station. Jack Demetree con- finned that one of the Demetree Brothers Inc. partnerships submit ted a bid to Harte-Hanks. He pre dicted before the sale to Gannett, however, that it would not be the winning bid. “We would certainly have been interested. But it will probably sell for a number beyond our reach." The final price tag: $155 million for the stations in Jacksonville and Greensboro. • •• I like the series Tim Deegan is do ing on TV-12 called Tim Answers Why. Viewers are invited to write in weather questions. I don’t like the promos the station is running with Marcia Ladendorff and Lee Webb chatting it up. They’re too schmoozy for my taste. At least one viewer mistakenly thought the two of them were married.