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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 1976)
There’s hope for quality TV drama By Jay Sharbutt AP Television Writer This Thursday, a new weekly series original drama for TV kicks off on public television. It is called Visions, is produced by KCET here and is intended to: • Offer far more mental sustenance than, say, Hawaii Five-0 • Encourage new dramatic works for TV and give new American playwrights a chance to work in the medium of commer cial television’s constant quest for ratings. It’ll have 13 original dramas and four re peats this season. The premier show, Two Brothers, is a study of a mentally ill doctor David Spielberg and the inability of his brother Judd Hirsch (of the Delvacchio series) to help him. This show plays tonight at 9 p.m. on OEPBS, Channel 17. The prime mover and artistic director of Visions is Barbara Schultz, a former execu tive producer of CBS Playhouse when there was one, and former East Coast prog ram development director for CBS. She says Visions goes back to 1972, when Fred Friendly, TV guru at the Ford Foundation, a major funder of public TV, and officials at the National Endowment for the Arts, got to worrying about the paucity of American dramatic works on the American public tube. “It seemed to them everything in drama was coming from England,” she said. “And of course, this was true....” The upshot of the worrying was the selec tion of KCET as producer of a home-grown dramatic series originally calling for 36 dramas to be made over a three-year period under a $10.2 million budget. Of that sum, $3.2 million was to come from benefactors others than the Ford Foundation and the National Endowment, whom Schultz says kicked in a total of $5 million, or the Corporation for Public Broad casting, which provided $2 million. It was a bad year for finding benefactors and thus, she says, Visions had to cut back to a two-season, 24-show schedule with the $7 million provided by Ford, the En dowment and CPB. Still, she says, she stayed with her origi nal vision of making Visions a weekly show, not only to build an audience but to sustain the new writers scrivening new works for the series. “The pressure to hit it big in a dramatic special is just too great for a rookie televi sion dramatist,” she adds. Only three of 13 first-season Visions authors have any kind of television experience. “On a weekly basis, it's possible to fail and you can’t really succeed unless you fail,” she says. "To have new people par ticipate in the medium, there has to be that allowance that they can fail.” German beer on tap in ‘de Frisco s If you've been looking for a tavern with some class and style where you can get good food and great beer, carry on a con versation in comfortable surroundings, play a game of pool on a good table with straight cues or even read a book, try de Frisco’s in the Atrium building on tenth and Olive. Stepping from the Atrium into the custom finished, solid oak interior is a trip in itself. The first thing that catches your eye is the book corner. It's a time-capsule that takes you back to the Victorian era when society’s leisure time was spent in comfortable draw ing room conversation. Pleasantly fur nished with antique easy chairs and soft light reading lamps, surrounded by an im pressive collection of readable books, the book corner invites conversation and re laxes atmosphere. Separated from the conversation area by a partition of narrow paned windows, the game area exudes a rich plushness that is more likely to bring out the sporting instinct in one than the roudy competitive atmos phere found in most taverns. The custom built pool tables are two-inch solid oak with rare Brazilian rosewood rails, leather pockets and English felt. A black velvet clad hostess will find you when it's By Eric S. Lee your turn to play. It also sports the newest model foozbal1 tables and the hottest flap per games in town—Captain Fantastic, the Pinball Wizard and Seventeen Seventy Six. The food at de Frisco's is comparable to any restaurant in town. Soups and sand wiches are compliments of Pat Helmers, once the cook for the New World coffee house. Don't be surprised if you find your Could You Reduce Proust? Could you reduce Proust So that he looks as though He were staring at us Behind a window With a little black moon Above him? With his elongated arm Reaching back— Resting Contemplating an attack On insects Reduce Proust With a little black moon Above him As though he were looking out a Dark window .. black moon His reflection His own face Morrison Weed beer — Lowenbrau and Millers on tap — being served by the manager, Derrick Ot terstedt or the owner, Dick Meigs, Meigs describes himself as a "rabid Oregonian." He came to Eugene 10 years ago as a student at the University. "At the time it was either graduate school or Canada,” he recalls. "I was the first long haired freak in the business department I spent most of my time playing the guitar Upon graduation, Meigs found himself over-qualified for most jobs “I didn't like the idea of driving a gray state car or moving to Salem to be a state economist or some thing, so I had to create my own job. Meigs' interest in music led him to open a small record store on 13th Avenue. Starting with records and gradually expanding into music instruments and electronic equip ment, the Sun Shop soon became known as the musician's music store With the business well under way, Meigs had more time for his hobbies, but some how he couldn't separate business from pleasure An expert foozball player and flapper (pinball) enthusiast, he found a real demand for tavern games that wasn't being filled. So he and some friends got together a company and wound up owning half the tables between Eugene and Salem. Through promotional efforts for the com pany, Meigs gained a great deal of expos ure to taverns throughout Oregon. "The Northwest is unique for it's tavern atmos phere," says Meigs. "Washington, Oregon and maybe Wisconsin are the only states with a large group of people that are beer and wine oriented." Although he says Eugene is the biggest tavern town in Oregon, Meigs doesn t feel that it is adequately served "There are some good taverns in Oregon. Mothers Mattress Factory in Corvallis is a highly im aginative tavern that works well. We wanted to build a tavern that fit Eugene s style A lot of the taverns are good for cer tain aspects but most of them were built before music became a factor." Meigs visualized a tavern as having three separate areas that don't intrude on each other. People who just want to sit and talk shouldn't have to pay a cover charge for music they don't want to listen to and they shouldn't have to worry about getting a pool cue in the back of the head. Conversely, those who want to listen to good music and boogies need a large area with good acous tics. Meigs hopes to open the music section sometime around the first of the year it's in the basement of the Atrium and has an area about twice that of the tavern itself— by far the largest dance floor in Eugene—"and the acoustics will be excellent," Meigs says. Through the Sun Shop Meigs has solid connections with most of the local musicians. He also hopes to bring big name groups to town. de Frisco's was built with the style and philosophy of Eugene in mind, portraying the quality of life with which we have be come accustomed and heralding a new era in entertainment and leisure time activities. All in all it looks as though de Frisco's is going to be what's happening in Eugene this winter. Master violinist opens concert series tugene roaor, me miuk jayyer ui Clas sical music” People Magazine, will be the first artist to appear in the current concert series of the Eugene and University Music Association. The concert, at 8:30 p.m. to morrow night in Mac Court, is open only to holders of season tickets. A few of these are still left at the Main Desk at $6 for students. In only a single season Eugene Fodor has won the admiration of music lovers around the world with his virtuositic perfor mance and charismatic personality. The 25-year old violinist, who lives in Turkey Creek, Colorado, achieved interna tional fame when he captured the highest prize awarded by the 1974 Tchaikovsky In ternational Violin Competition in Moscow. No American violinist, or any musician from the Western world, had ever done so well in a part of this prestigious event which con fers celebrity status upon its victors. Although Fodor s success seems to have happened overnight, he has actually been a student of the violin since age seven. After his father, an amateur violinist, introduced him to the fiddle he studied for ten years with Harold Whippier, the former concert master of the Denver Symphony. During this time he won four first prize honors in local competitions and at age 11 made his debut with the Denver Symphony. Later Fodor studied at the University of Southern California, Juilliard, Meadow mount, and Indiana University. He collected further awards, including in 1972 first prize in the International Paganini Violin Compet ition. During this period his teachers in cluded the legendary Jascha Heifetz. On his return to America following his victory at the Tchaikovsky Competition, he played for New York’s Mayor Beame, who in turn presented him with the key to the city. Afterwards he flew west to Denver, to rejoin his family, where the governor wel comed him at the State Capitol and pro claimed Eugene Fodor Day. That same night he played with the Denver Symphony at the 15,000-seat Redrock Amphitheater at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. Since his victory in Moscow his career has grown rapidly. He has already been heard in North America, South America, Europe, the Soviet Union and New Zea land. He has played at the Caramoor Festi val and with such leading American orches tras as the National Symphony of Washing ton, D.C., Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Baltimore Sym phony, London Symphony, and Buffalo Philharmonic. During the summer of 1975 he performed in many of the nation's major summer festi vals including the Saratogy Festival where he was soloist with the Philadelphia Or chestra. In the 1975-76 season he will make a coast to coast tour of the United States, during which he will be soloist with leading orchestras and play numerous recitals. His foreign engagements will include a tour of Europe. In New York he will return for the presitgious Great Performers series at Avery Fisher Hall in December. Despite his busy concert schedule, Fodor will cut his fourth album for RCA Re cords this season. While not jetting around the world and playing in its major concert halls, Eugene enjoys an outdoor life on his father s 80 acre ranch in Turkey Creek, Colorado, where fie is an avid motorcyclist, scuba diver, jogger and horseback enthusiast.
