"WKRC in Cincinnati--in perspective"

This has been good for us as a 'web documentary.'
So see screen bottom for discussion of future possibilities to reach a wider audience.



       .

Production V: "WKRP in Cincinnati--a Documentary"

I've already produced the story of WKRP in Cincinnati on this site as a sort of "web documentary." (Click to view) I thought that would be useful to me as a sort of would-be businessman and would-be journalist--and it has indeed proved useful to those selfish purposes of my own.
      Would it interest a wider audience? Would it serve other selfish purposes? I think so, in both respects, perhaps as a documentary for presentation on PBS. Most people know WKRP from remembering episodes or characters, but the series was part of a fascinating business battle between the late Mr. William Paley and ABC/Taft Broadcasting. Mr. Paley seems to have gotten the better of the contest, using WKRP itself as an important weapon.
       That fact illustrates the power of a well-done satire. WKRP producers, writers, and actors at CBS contributed to an artistic effort that also acheived a real-world result.
       The start of 2008 marked about 30 years since WKRP premeried and, assuming the role of producer for a possible TV documentary, I've been calling people who I think might be interested.
        One of those was Mr. Bob Gerding who is prominent on the media scene in Cincinnati and who shot the opening sequence for the series circa 1978.  Another peerson I talked to was Grace at CET, the Cincinnati public TV station. That station has excellent production facilities, I learned, which are availlable for hiring, and Grace assured me that there weren't still hard feelings in her city about the derisive nature of WKRP.
       I'm not entirely sure about that, however.
       I received e-mails in 2007 from Mr. Bob Morford of WCPO, which is the present ABC affiliate in Cincinatti. I also received an e-mail from Mr. Robyn Tyndall, who is an Exccutive Producer at that station. Neither e-mail pertained to my WKPR project, but WCPO-TV might be considered to be the companion to the radio station that was being satirized in the series. If I'm being a bit confuising here, it's because CBS and ABC affiliates in Cincinnati have exhanged call letters. That was part of the interesting business aftermath of the series.
       So a lot has changed since 1978, but there's a lot that remains the same.
       Another person I've tried to reach, through his agent, is Mr. Tim Reid, who played "Venus Flytrap" on WKRP. Mr. Alan Alda and Mr. Gerald McRaney were two other CBS actors of that period who I tend to think of being in the same club, a club of people that sometimes played little tricks on me. I recall Mr. Alda, for example, strolling through University Hospital in Indianapolis wearing a medical gown. Although he wasn't a doctor, he did play one on TV.

I think maybe Cincinnati is a city that could use a little bit of shaking up every thirty years, if not more often.
        Part of my business effort has to do with science, as may be seen elsewhere on this site. I ask, "Why is Cincinnati-based Kroger, one of the country's largest food stores, adding trans-fats to it's ground beef?"
       It seems a sort of Cincinnati private sector make-work project--designed to help keep all those devil worshipers at Proctor & Gamble "at work" and off city streets. Those extra trans fats certainly won't  improve public health. Perhaps my theater efforts can help keep this real-world problem on the current agenda of officials both at Kroger and in government.
       As I continue to work on this project, I'll plan to update this account.

Last update, January 2008
Site text copyright 2008
DS Gaus Corporation
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Web pages text copyright 2008
DS Gaus Corporation
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David Gaus Productions

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"Gaus" comes from proto-IndoEuropean meaning "gander" or "goose." The implication, originally, was shaministic. Here one of my ancestors--or perhaps another, even more important, bird--seems to be proclaiming his social prominence from a lofty height.
     (In Hollywood they sometimes use special chairs for directors to acheive a similar effect.)
Production IV: The Confession of Muchael McMoremuck

As my means are modest, I thought I might like to include something I can do as street theater in Indianapolis. If you’d like to attend, let me know.
     “The Confession of Muchael McMoremuck” is a monologue made by a guy who's been arrested for stalking a famous country and western singer. When questioned, he informs police that he was responsible for 693 homicides and, “doesn’t give a hot damn.” 
       While his crimes might not have been homicides in the technical legal sense, they may nevertheless weigh on Muchael’s conscience, and he wants to make a confession.
       This is a fragment from a projected longer work, The McMoremuck Chronicles, which tells the story a prominent fictional Chicago business family over several generations.

Our Production l: Windy City  Dribblers

         What about a movie about a professional basketball team? I propose Windy City Dribblers as a  title. For more on the real-life basis for that: click here.
          Now, who'd be good for the role of the sleazy, lowlife owner of the sleazy, lowlife Dribblers team? 
          The question might be who'd have some resemblance to Mr. Jim Crown, part owner of the Chicago Bulls. Perhaps Mr. Dan Aykroyd would be a suitable choice. And what about Mr. Chevy Chase? After all, Mr. Crown is on the board of Chase Bank. Or Mr. Howard Hesseman, who played Chicago low-life in Doctor Detroit?
         Now, the reader may be aksing, "How could an actor, such as Dan Ackroyd,  who once portrayed the handsome, humanitarian Dr. Detroit, change character so completely--in order to depict the typical crazed, gin-besotted owner of an NBA team?"
         Good question. But I have great confidence in Mr. Aykroyd, who's surely one of Hollywood's greatest mulitdimenstional superstars. In that regard, he can be compared only to other incomparable thespians of the modern era--such as Mr. Chase or Mr. Hesseman. And I almost forgot Mr. Gerald McRaney, another of my favorite actors, who is discussed elsewhere on this site. He could play the part of the owner of the Windy City Dribblers as well
       Well, we'll just have to see how events develop. Will they go totally out of control?

Production lII: Doctor Detroit II

Once again the suave, athletic, and ingenious “Doctor” is featured. (Did I mention that I was the model for the original?) The big question in this movie will be whether Chicago teenagers should be told the truth about oral sex—specifically that oral sex causes oral cancer?
        In any city but Chicago, It would seem the right thing to do.
        There should be a juicy role here for some lucky actress as the Chicago Mayor Mother. You see, Mayor Mother, Bridgette Biweekly, is torn. She fears the impending damnation of her perpetually wayward son, Mayor Bituminous M. Biweekly. The mayor must decide whether to tell Chicago’s teenagers the truth about oral sex. (For a serious commentary on this subject, see the article on this site.)
        The role of the mayor mother--mother, that is, of the man called "Mother of all Mayors" might be a challenging role for Lynda Carter or Loni Anderson. I pains me to think of casting such beautiful women in a mature role such as that, but unfortunately time waits neither for man nor woman.
          But as the villainous “Mom,” (back from the original movie), cruelly reminds Mayor Biweekly, such a move would undermine the city’s prostitution industry and thus cause Chicago’s whole economy to collapse.  
           Dr. Detroit was interesting in that the "bad guy" was actually female. My own expereinces in Chicago, prior to the date the movie was made, had indeed been that the city was populated by a lot of bad, terrible women.
         My more recent experiences, which have been more safely by phone from Indianapolis to Chicago, have confirmed that nothing has changed in Chicago.
        In the orignal Doctor Detroit, the title character was a professor at a mythical college in the Chicago area. For the sequel, I thought it might be interesting for him to have accepted a position at the University of Chicago. Since the days of the young Mr. Mike Nichols, the U of C has been an inexhaustible comedic vein.
       Who knows, perhaps the Chicago mob has taken over fund-raising activities for the university. That wouldn't be too far from the truth, based on my real-life expereinces of 2006 with Laura Gruen and some of her colleagues.
       Gruen (her real name may have been "Greenspan"), worked in the  alumni office at Chicago.
       A proposed movie set in a large city such as Chicago has a large prospective core audience by reason of locale.
         Emboldened by the above considerations, I phoned Second City in early 2007 to see if anyone there might be interested in my production. Valerie Harper, a "monstress" (or female monster) who became a monstrous success, got her start at Second City. Earlier I'd tried e-mailing Valerie and had received an e-mail and phone call in return from a gentleman associate of hers. But there didn't seem to be a great deal of current interest on her part. It seems it's time for younger talent to take the stage.
       Valerie's sitcom sidekick was Julie Kavner. Perhaps Julie would be good for the role of "Ms. Tara Bruin," fictional female head of a fictional "Office of Involuntary Alumni Contributions" at the UChicago. Julie would be good in the role of an intelligent mature woman, with an air of authority, whose motivations might not quite be what they seem.
         Well, perhaps I'll have a major theatirical smash hits on my hands.  Zany events, in real life and in art, may develop quickly--and, indeed, "spin totally out of control."
      
Production ll:
Tonio Kroger--possible effort based on the famous story by Thomas Mann.
Click for more details
Strike up the band.
Study of this interestingly-composed Japanese work may improve one's ability to work Sudoku puzzles
My Qualifications

... as a theatical producer could probably be described best as "not entirely lacking."
          For my intended theatrical productions, I'll be needing writers and perhaps actors. My credentials as a impresario are those of someone who's had a certain influence both on real world events and synchronously, on TV, movies, etc. In this dual role, I've played a quite significant role in the careers of some famous actors and actreesses and a number of them actually traveled to Indianapolis to get a look at me.
          That's a waste of time. I have the look of any other slightly-beaten-down middle-aged city dweller. And my personal situation has become so complex that I'm sometimes not sure whether I recognize the given movie or TV personality. (The US is the only country in the world where the number of celebrities is greater than the number of ordinary people.)
           A more productive and cheaper thing to do than try to get a look at me as if I were a celebrity (which I'm definitely not) would be to send me an e-mail or call me on the phone at 317 523 6943. If you do see me on the street, feel free to introduce yourself and say what you current concerns might be.

Now, a film usually needs to give the audience something to chew on by dealing, to some degree, with contemporary issues. Despite the write-up of Dr. Detroit II here, I'm not sure I'd actually be wildly ethusiastic about another movie in which the main character is supposed to correspond to me. But this web site deals with quite a number of contemporary scientific, social and political issues. It has a far-out ideas regarding viruses, politics, schizophrenia. and other topics.
      On this site you can learn where cowboys came from originally, and how our educational and business system is rigged mathmatically to favor the advancement of a "dysfunctional elite."
      In short, we have here novelity, versimiltude,  current controversy, and dancing girls (see top of screen)--and those are the stuff of which plays, movies, and TV shows are made.
       And all here for free-- although certain intellectual property rights may apply in some instances.
        
"What's Cezanne all about, anyway?"

One of the few people who can explaln that in just a few words is David Gaus. Give him a call at
   (317 ) 523 6943
or send him an e-mail at:
dave @davidgaus.com
Friends, learn how to fool people into thinking you're intelligent by means of scattered intelligent comments in your otherwise inane conversational stream.
--This simple trick has helped keep David Gaus afloat for many years now.
Production VI: Paranoid Schizophrenia, the Musical
Click for more details