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
