The Father Of Modern Television: Milton Berle
As if you needed another example of how the mainstream media just doesn’t get it, consider this: Entertainment Weekly’s 2002 obituary of Milton Berle was a mere half page. Berle didn’t even get the page to himself-he shared it with a similar sized obit for Dudley Moore, who died just a few hours later. Both men were afforded less ink than Director Billy Wilder, who also passed away in a rough week for Hollywood types. Not meaning any disrespect to Dudley Moore, a funny and talented but to suggest that Berle’s legacy was of similar impact to the British funnyman is absurd.
Milton Berle not only trod the path, he found the path and cleared it. It’s not an overstatement to suggest that Berle not only “made” television, but the entire popular entertainment culture of the late 20th and early 21st century. It’s shameful that much of the culture he created was oblivious to the fact that even they owe an ancestral debt to Berle. Before Milton Berle, there was no “must see TV”-people didn’t care what was on when because it was all poorly produced and amateurishly acted. Berle’s “Texaco Star Theater” was the first blockbuster hit on television and put up numbers that are unfathomable today-it would routinely draw 80%+ of the television audience and hit over 90% on a few occasions. By way of comparison, consider that the NFL and the TV networks consider it a great year when the Superbowl draws a 70% share.
When people started to care what was on when, it led to the creation of TV Guide and a media sprung up to cover television programming and the stars it created. Publications like Entertainment Weekly and celebrity TV networks like E! are just little more than the progeny of TV guide and other early showbiz media. The fact that EW doesnt realize that Berle put the seeds in the ground is symptomatic the problem with mass media today: they just dont get the fact that some people, places, things or concepts are of greater value than others. Their tendency is to elevate the superficial and banal to a higher level of importance, while simultaneously trying to minimize and dumb down that which is deserving of great praise.
The man who would be dubbed ‘Mr. Television’ was born on July 12, 1908 and his showbiz career began in vaudeville. This led to the television show that made him an institution. His TV success wasnt a matter of him being in the right place at the right time. He had an uncanny understanding of how to utilize the medium, and an ability to adapt his stage act to the new audience. Berle worked constantly throughout his 88 year career, even earning an Emmy Award nomination in the late 1990′s.
Perhaps the best evidence of the sort of man that Milton Berle was is the fact that so few bad things were said about him in the backbiting, petty world of show biz. Most gave the same account–a quick witted, devil may care gentleman who enjoyed the good life. In particular, his trademark cigar–while it wasn’t the prop that it was for George Burns his taste in cigars were much more refined. While Burns typically smoked El Productos and cheaper sticks, Berle favored high end Cuban Montecristos.
Berle not only redefined the concept of television and created the industry that exists around it, he lived as a gentleman who enjoyed life and took great pleasure from the people he shared it with.
