TV pioneer Roone Arledge, who reshaped news, sports coverage, dies at 71
Mr. Arledge's legacy and accomplishments could fill books and, in fact, have, simply because there are only four executives who truly shaped modern television — CBS Chairman William Paley, CBS President Frank Stanton, Ted Turner and Mr. Arledge.
He won 36 Emmys and in 1990 was cited among the 100 most important Americans of the 20th century by Life magazine.
A shorthand version of his legacy is most easily seen in the programs he either created or had a direct hand in creating — "Monday Night Football," "Wide World of Sports," "Nightline," "20/20," "World News Tonight with Peter Jennings" and "This Week," to cite an abbreviated list. He also was a star-maker unlike any TV boss since Paley. Those who thrived and — thanks to Mr. Arledge's legendary largess — prospered under him include Jennings, Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer, Sam Donaldson, Ted Koppel, Howard Cosell and many others.
Mr. Arledge's 30-year reign at ABC — where he remade both sports, which he ran from 1968 to 1986, and ABC News, which he ran from 1986 to 1998 — ended badly. He was given a largely meaningless title of "ABC News chairman" and watched from a distance while Disney presided over a slow, painful dismantling of some of his most cherished projects at ABC News.
"Nightline," for example, was nearly canceled in March, while shows such as "20/20" and "Primetime Live" now are mostly filled with soft, reality-TV-style features. That is an ironic reversal because when Mr. Arledge joined ABC News, many thought he would fill news programs with infotainment. Instead, he made them harder and stronger.
"I can't imagine the world of broadcast news without Roone," said Jeff Gralnick, a former ABC News vice president who produced numerous programs under Mr. Arledge. "The landscape looks like it does on every network because of him."
In particular, Mr. Arledge had a huge appetite for live, breaking news, now standard fare on cable.
Sports television, in particular, was re-ordered by Mr. Arledge, and it is equally impossible to imagine institutions such as ESPN, "Monday Night Football" and the Olympics without him.
Pre-Arledge, sports TV was straight-ahead and about as imaginative as a weathercast. He added elements such as slow-motion, instant replay and numerous other engineering flourishes that not only enlivened the broadcast but (according to many) changed the way sports were played, particularly pro football.
"Before Roone, if you missed the touchdown, you missed the touchdown," Sam Donaldson said yesterday. "Roone said, 'Why can't we see it again?' "
"Roone Arledge invented television sports and then reinvented television news," said Dick Ebersol, NBC Sports chief and a protégé of Mr. Arledge. "He alone moved American sports from ... the small time to big time."
Besides launching "Monday Night Football" in 1970, Mr. Arledge was ABC's grand master of Olympic broadcasting. He produced every Olympics telecast for ABC over three decades and shaped these vast, unamalgamated events into made-for-TV spectaculars, filled with heroes and goats, drama and intrigue.
Mr. Arledge joined ABC in 1960, quickly became a producer and, at age 36, president of ABC Sports. An empire-builder, he scooped up exclusive rights to various Olympics, college football and other sports events, eventually rivaling — then surpassing — CBS as the nation's preeminent TV sports venue.
His tenure at ABC News was rocky at first: In the summer of 1977, he went wall-to-wall on the David Berkowitz "Son of Sam" story and the death of Elvis. He championed Geraldo Rivera, whom he later fired.
In 1978, he launched "20/20," which suffered perhaps the worst launch of any show in TV history. The news-magazine's original hosts were fired after the first broadcast, replaced by Hugh Downs.
He tackled the 1979-81 Iran hostage crisis as if it was the Olympics — daily late-night coverage of that crisis. But this, of course, would evolve into "Nightline."
Mr. Arledge had been battling cancer for years and had deteriorated rapidly in recent months, according to former associates. However, his death stunned many at ABC, which has suffered the loss of four other longtime executives in recent days, including Mr. Arledge's longtime lieutenant, Joanna Bistany, who died Sunday.
Said Jennings in a statement yesterday: "He could be unbelievably difficult, and there were times when we wanted to wring his neck, but ... he was almost like a father in some ways."
"He inspired people," said Donaldson, who anchored shows such as "This Week" and "Primetime" under Mr. Arledge. "That's the mark of true leader."
Funeral arrangements were pending late yesterday. He is survived by his wife, Gigi Shaw Arledge, and his children from a previous marriage, Roone Arledge Jr., Susan Weston, Betsey Arledge and Patricia Looney.
Information from The Associated Press and the New York Daily News is included in this report.