Good Morning America! --You’re Missing a Great Opportunity to Broadcast Live From Orlando!

The NBA Basketball Finals are being held in Orlando this year, thanks to an incredibly talented Orlando Magic basketball team. The City of Orlando, in typical “O-town" entertainment-style has rolled out the blue magic carpets and spared no expense welcoming all of the wonderful NBA fans and reporters with blue and white balloons, banners, manicured gardens, clean streets, fresh paint, free Lymmo buses, and comfortable outdoor seating. Except for the time zone (and no volcanos), you’d think you were in Waikiki!

TVgrrrrl, thanks to a cleverly-worded sign and an ambitious ABC roving camera crew, managed to get herself and her posse of friends on ABC TV last night as the Magic beat the Lakers 108 to 104! How very cool!

However, the ABC presence stops there. Where is the Good Morning America crew? Back at home in NY, safely shielded behind the sterile blue windows of their studio on Broadway with a subdued “live” studio audience standing like statues in the background. Ah, snore… No wonder the show always lags behind NBC’s “Today Show” in ratings. (According to Nielsen, on May 14, 2009 the Today Show marked it’s 700th week as network television’s most popular morning show. Do the math – that’s over 13 years!)

Why isn’t Good Morning America here in Orlando broadcasting live from Amway Arena during the NBA finals? Or perhaps from the quaint brick-lined restaurant and business district, perhaps in the Orange County Historical Museum park at Central and Magnolia? Or on Lake Eola? Or perhaps from outside their own affiliate studios at WFTV Channel 9 in downtown Orlando?

Or, here’s a thought – Disney World?

ABC is owned by Disney. It’s not like they’d have to get permission and pay stiff royalties. It’s the same company. Even their websites show the melding of their identities. (ABC TV, Walt Disney World)

While ABC is broadcasting for the NBA, they might want to look around and think about possibly setting up permanent shop in Orlando. Strategically located on the opposite end of the United States, but still in the eastern time zone, Orlando, a city built around Disney World, is a major entertainment destination, a family-friendly city, and a regular stop on celebrity tours. The cost of living is lower than New York City, so employees can live quite comfortably on lower salaries. ABC Disney already owns several buildings where the network could build their sets. Despite all the bad publicity about hurricanes in Florida, the city of Orlando is actually in the center of the state, far from the coast, and 98 feet above sea level. Yes, it can get quite hot in the summer, but mornings are usually cool and you simply can’t beat our balmy winters and moderate weather 8 months out of the year.

I suppose that at one time, it would have been next to impossible to base a major television network, much less a morning show, in a city other than New York. However, due to improved technology, television shows can now broadcast from the ends of the earth – literally.

Rather than continuously compete for viewership and a live, vivacious audience in densely network-populated New York, why not break the mold and move to Orlando? O-town welcomes you!

Remington Steele – A 1980’s snapshot in time

Before Pierce Brosnan played James Bond, before Doris Roberts played the nosy mother on Everybody Loves Raymond, there was Remington Steele,
a tantalizing and kitschy private investigator show full of glamour and romance.

The show is currently being re-run on American Life Television Network. I discovered it one day when I was home sick, and now the TiVo is programmed to pick it up every weekday. Here in Central Florida, it airs at 10 AM and again at 6 PM on Bright House cable channel 152. (For some odd reason, TV guide doesn't list the channel.)

The baseline story is complicated, but fortunately, the show’s writers repeatedly revisit the tale of how the Remington Steele detective agency was formed: Private investigator, Laura Holt (played by Stephanie Zimbalist), starts an agency and can’t get clients because she is a woman. She creates a “fake” male boss by stealing the name of her gun, a Remington, and adds the name “steel” with an “e” for flavor. After much success under her imaginary “boss,” a.k.a Remington Steele, she meets a con artist (Pierce Brosnan) who agrees to play the roll of Remington Steele to help her solve a case. The two work well together and the con artist permanently assumes the identity of Remington Steele. Season 2 brings in the colorful and delightful Doris Roberts as Mildred Krebs, a former IRS auditor, who acts as secretary, but eventually works her way into the roll of a private investigator herself. (See trailer)

What makes the show really work and gives it lasting quality is that each character, despite their good looks and poise, has a quirky personality of their very own. Over the course of the show, we wonder who Remington really is (does he even know, himself?). Remington frequently quotes and compares cases they are investigating to vintage movies from the 30s, 40s, and 50s (What’s really cool, is you can now watch those movies on TCM, so you have an inkling what he’s talking about.) Mildred Krebs is always surprising us with her seemingly unending abilities and skills. Laura Holt, the “straight man,” constantly brings the team back to reality by discussing budgets and timelines, while holding back from throwing herself at a constantly beckoning Remington. She finally gives in to Remington in season 4.

I love watching the show and relishing all the 1980s kitsch. It’s not just the high necked silk blouses, shoulder pads, big hair, and giant earrings worn by Laura. Mildred uses an old IBM computer. The printer is a noisy dot matrix printer, complete with fan fold paper fed onto a roll (do you remember those?). Cell phones? Yeah, right, No. Old designer hand held models I would kill to have (but I don’t have a land line. Hmm.) Last week, Remington ordered a giant “top-of-the-line” new-technology disk movie player, a competitor to VCRs which came in a box bigger than a microwave, along with a giant TV, the kind that takes up half the living room.

The show also has a huge list of guest stars from a “who’s who” from the TV and soap opera world. In order of appearance: Annie Potts, Sharon Stone, Jenny O’Hara, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (Stephanie Zimbalist’s father), Delta Burke, Richard Backus, Michael Durrell, Judith Light, Barry Jenner, Susan Ruttan, John Larroquette, Billie Bird, Nancy Stafford, K Callan, Mary Beth Evans, Jean Smart, Geena Davis, Harry Groener, Peter Jurasik, Jennifer Tilly, Vincent Schiavelli, and Barbara Babcock, just to name a few.

Numerous actor careers were launched in part by Remington Steele, including: Paul Reiser, Randy Oglesby, Faith Prince, Miguel Sandoval, Patricia Wettig, and Joan McMurtrey.

You can see the entire list on IMDb.

Ah, my heart throbs for Pierce Brosnan – who is constantly gorgeous in designer suits and tuxedos. He is nearly always clean shaven, which makes me wonder: Why didn’t they let him shave as James Bond? Didn’t that hurt the leading ladies who kissed him?

Remington Steele originally ran for 5 seasons from 1982 to 1987. American Life is currently running season 4. (I hope they go back to season 1 when it runs out.)