E!'s Ted Harbert: Cherishing Comcast Peace After Living 'Disney War'

E! Television president Ted Harbert and I met at Michael's on the same day James Stewart's Disney War was published. "Like any self-respecting Hollywood animal," Ted told me, "I looked in the index first to check for my name," and then he quickly turned to pages 230, 245-247, 250, 252, 292 and 293, where he's mentioned. "It's odd to relive these stories nine years later," Ted grimaces, commenting that Stewart's book is reasonably accurate. Ted was at the center of one of Michael Eisner's and Michael Ovitz' early controversies when then-wunderkind Jamie Tarses joined ABC from NBC and shared network responsibilities with Ted, who was elevated to network chairman when she joined the company. "I believed the job was bigger than one person, but it wasn't big enough for two, and Jamie was intent on running the show," he recalled.Jamie ostensibly reported to Ted, but, as then Disney president Michael Ovitz explained to Ted, "You're in charge, but if you say something Jamie doesn't like, she can call Bob [Iger]." After working with Tarses for six months, Ted made the choice to leave ABC after a 20-year career, departing on a Friday and, the following Tuesday, he joined his former ABC colleague Jeffrey Katzenberg at Dreamworks.It was old home week at Michael's, with former ABC executive Herb Granath stopping by, along with CourtTV's Henry Schleiff who was lunching with Patricia Duff; Burt Reynolds, with whom Ted once did a special, wore a brightly colored jacket; actress Dina Merrill was elegant and beautiful; news honchos Lesley Stahl, Roger Ailes, Victor Neufeld, Sherry Rollins and Katie Couric all spoke in hushed tones to their lunch partners; and Andrew Cuomo did some quiet lobbying."As Ted surveyed the room, he told me he wanted to work at ABC since he was 11. His dad had been an associate producer for the "Steve Allen Show" on NBC and then had moved to legendary ad agency Kenyon &amp; Eckhardt. But it was his Stamford, CT high school friend Tim, whose dad, Ed Vane, was ABC's East Coast Programming VP and who brought home pocket pieces and told stores about network TV, and who emotionally connected Ted to ABC. "I grew up as the fourth in line with four brothers and a sister. I was always either reading or watching TV. My dad tried to teach me golf and, like most sports, I never lacked for effort but played with great mediocrity. I had a high handicap in golf but was a scratch TV viewer," Ted laughed. Today, he has a 12 handicap but still watches a lot of television and has strong opinions about the state of the medium."Children are not settling into their parents' TV viewing habits like previous generations," he observes. "Their attention spans have fundamentally changed. We have only seen the start of their multi-tasking abilities. They are doing homework, instant messaging, listening to iTunes and maybe watching television, all at the same time." Ted laughs, "I've stopped challenging my daughter (15) and son (12). They handle it all.""Teens have so many choices," he points out. "They've become the most fickle shoppers ever in their TV viewing choices. The biggest change," Ted suggests, is "they are only shopping from the top shelf among scripted network product and watching two or three scripted series, but there is a long list of top shelf reality programming they'll watch. Young people are slipping away from dramas. Reality shows are their dramas. As the MTV generation has grown up they have had a profound impact on the network television model. They want honesty and believability and don't have the same attraction to fiction. If someone is laughing or crying, it resonates more to them if it is real."Ted is more familiar than most with the challenges of developing primetime hit programming. "The network television business model depends on heavy investment spending to find a hit program. It's always been a risk, but the primetime programming game has gone from poker to craps to the slot machine. It's a million dollar bet every time and the odds are no better than the slots." After eight months at E!, Ted is happy he no longer is gambling with such strong odds against him, and is especially pleased to be working at E! parent company, Comcast with his former ABC colleague Steve Burke."I'm 49 and feel like I'm 17," he smiles. "It's a thrill. E! has a good business and we need to outrun new competition from VH1, A&amp;E, TV Guide and TV Land, who are all entering our space. Plus there's People, Us, Star, the new TV Guide celebrity magazine, CNN's new show biz program, and more competition on the way. I'm flattered by the interest but we need to beat them back with a stick."This Wednesday (March 16) at 10 pm E! premieres "My Crazy Life" in which stars share little known secrets and stories about themselves and on Thursday, the network joins the poker craze (a different type of risk for the network) with "E! Hollywood Hold 'Em." The network has generated extensive publicity with its nightly mock Michael Jackson trial featuring Jackson impersonator Edward Moss, and with the "Gastineau Girls" reality show.Ted's plan for E! is to develop "better made core entertainment programs, clip shows, and well made reality series with good characters" and he is also enthusiastic about E!'s sibling Style Network, which he claims "is exploding." E!'s nightly edited broadcast taped at Howard Stern's Infinity radio show remains E!'s highest rated program and while "there are issues in the ad community, it would be difficult if not impossible to replace." With Stern moving his program to Sirius in January, Ted is exploring options but has "no point-of-view yet" on future plans.After graduating from Boston College, Ted literally begged his former neighbor Ed Vane for an interview and after several months, was finally offered a job as commercial scheduling clerk. At the same time, he had applied for a coveted apprentice position at NBC and was among the final three candidates, so he turned down the ABC job, regretting it when he lost out on the NBC slot. "I was dead in the water but relentlessly begged Ed and in July 1977 he offered me a six-month job in the featured film division of the TV network reading a back-log of scripts. Those were in the days when networks pre-bought the rights to theatrical films," Ted explains. "Six months went by and I asked Tony Thomopolous if my job was over. He told me to 'shut up and go back to my desk.' Ted moved up the ranks, moving to the West Coast in 1981, and has been credited with developing "Wonder Years," "Thirty Something," "Roseanne," "China Beach," "My So Called Life," "NYPD Blue," and "The Practice."To contact Ted Herbert, send an e-mail to contact@mediavillage.com

E!'s Ted Harbert: Cherishing Comcast Peace After Living 'Disney War'

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