Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 15, 1984)
Thursday, M-rch 15, 1C34 Pago 8 Daily Nsbraskan M GwleQMiwl leaves 'A By Vzity Prycr Well, Uncle Ed of All Night Live Is gone and gone with him are Caffeina, Nicotina, the banana phone, the creed, the back-hand salute and all the ether Unci? Ed trappings. In his place is Dick Wilson and All Night Live Tlie Second Generation. Uncle Ed Muscare, who ruled the late-night cable airwaves for two-and-half years on Kansas City's KSIIB. has moved onto sunnier climes in San Diego. "It was Uncle Ed's decision," said Dan Weatcroft, ANL executive producer. "He came to me in Nov ember and handed me hl3 resignation. He said he didn't quite like the climate in Kansas City." "Yep, I hate cold weather," Muscare, 51, agreed. So now he plays cards and bets the horses in balmy San Diego, where he used to operate a hot dog stand back in 1977. "I just want to relax for awhile," he said. "I'm doing a lot of gardening and sitting in the sun." Before the advent of UncleEd and All Night Live, Muscare's career included quite a number of versa tile roles with KSHB, the first of which was as a . kiddie show host on 41 Trcchmise Lane in 1970. From there, he became The Creeper on a late night horror show, from which he cococted an ear lier version of the ANL creed, called the Creeper Creed, that included the immortal line: "I pledge that, instead of going to sleeper, 111 stay up and watch Channel 41's Creeper." . Muscare was living in his brother's Florida home, across the street from Disney Worltf (somehow a seemingly perfect environment for Uncle Ed), when he heard of KSIIB's plans for .AM Night Live. I thought it would be right up my alley," he recalled and the rest, as they say, is history. Throughout his stint with ANL, Muscare infused the show with his own particular style and brand of humor which made the transition from Uncle Ed to Dick Wilson and The Second Generation a bit tricky. SIMGLE COPIES FROM The Copy Shop Hours: 10-6 Mon.-Sat. except 12-0 Thursday 12-5 Sunday self-service copies 333 North 12th 477-9347 Largest Selection of in Lincoln v 111' ! ' I II) IIIMll'tJ,v f DC Super Selection of " I m i m . V Hi M fit itiUtl Absolutely GSIEGGT C2271 in Town Buy your St Patrick's Day keg from Lincoln's No. 1 Keg Dealer! NOBODY UNBEHEl!X MEE! We will beat any advertised keg special in town! No extra charge for green beer FREE green carnations for the ladies while supply fast. PLEASE RESERVE 24 HOURS IN ADVANCE Prices good only if equipment is returned In 24 hours. Despite mixed reception from local All Night Live ers, both Wilson and Wheatcroft say theyVe received mostly tavorable response to the change. "It's been very positive and very comfortable mov ing In "said Wilson, who tool mnrtsANL rir.gmaster Feb. 20. A change in style was pretty much necessitated by Muscare's departure, Whcatcrcft said, because of the difficulty in duplicating Uncle Ed's peculiarities. "No one can become Uncle Ed it's not a charac ter we could make up," he said. "We would not want to tell him (Wilson) to act like Uncle Ed." Muscare was "a very honest person on the air," Wheatcroft added. "He was not acting as much as reacting." Wilson, 35, agreed that trying to become a "second Uncle Ed" would have been the wrong approach. "What Ed did was what Ed did and what I do is what I do," Wilson said. "I think his bizarrity was in the way he looked; mine will come out in my thoughts." Wheatcroft said the search for Muscare's replace ment was a tough one. Muscare wanted to leave in a month, but when no new host turned up by then, he agreed to fly in from San Diego every Monday to tape the week's shows. "That got a little old," Muscare said. "It's hard to do five shows in one night." But Wheatcroft said he wanted just the right man for the job, and thinks he's found it in Wilson, who has a 12-year history with Kansas City radio station KY102 behind him. "He's one of the most creative people in Kansas City," Wheatcroft said, "and that's what we needed, with someone having to react continually." Some of Wilson's new ideas for the show include a Friday night band, composed of a different group of strangers every week; a roving camera visiting local hotspots; flash video contests, with snippets of sev eral television shows to identify; and a penalty box on the set for those occasional live gocf-ups. Wilson said he also wa3 looking for "foreign cor respodents" from the cable viewing audience to send polaroid photos of local happenings with their phone numbers to the studio. The correspondents will then be contacted to describe their events on the air. ' Other than his own segments, Wheatcroft said the ANL host hasnt much say in programming deci sions, such as the recent discontinuation, of The Twilight Zone. The programming department reads viewer mail every day, he said, and bases many of its decisions on that feedback. "A perfect example of that was just last week," Wheatcroft said, "when we heard from two people who wanted to know why they hadn't seen Curly in The Three Stooges lately. . "Now Curry's back on that's all it took was those two people," he said. So, viewer response will most likely determine Wilson's future with The Second Generatkm, md both he and Wheatcroft are optimistic. "I think we're off to a dynamite beginning," Wheat croft said. Still, there are those who iss all the old props and gimmicks, but Uncle Ed himself isnt one of them. "No, I dont really miss it," he said. "I still do (the back-hand salute) wherever I go, but out here, they look at me like I'm crazy." Heads nems vuui I r .1 b V ) J Turn! When you set your hair styled 1 r ' .i O proiccsioiiuiii. 7V wX . Stop' in ; i uuuyt APPOINTMENTS AVAILABLE ) J" lit mm'm . I 475-6362 Next to Skywalk-Centrum 1111 "0" St. eat . Complete Hairstyling for Men & Women