Frank Lovece makes

By Nancy Abrams
er criticized his Eammar and writing
abilitv.

living urriting about TV

Hold the applause. While manY people mark 1989 as the 50th anni' v'ersary of the advent of television.
Frank Lovece shakes his head.

Domrnion Post Statf Writer

"Television didn't begin in 1939,"

Frink Lovece was born inBuenos Aires, fugentina, the son of ltalian immigrants. His mother is Nellie Gillian, one of the owr"lers of Rose, an Italian restaurant in Westover. The
family moved to the United States
when Frank was 14 months old. He was raised in Keyser and Morgantown.

Lovece says. "That myth is corpcrate nrooaqanda from RCA." Whi should we believe Frank Lovece? Well, for starters, he's from

'

Morgantown. And, at the riPe old age bf 31, he's a TV authoritY. He writes a syndicated column on the Vdeomagazine; he writes tot Amei'
NausdaY.

"My mother and I learned English

at the sam6 time watching Lucv,' " Frank says.

'l Love

television indusfy for United Feature; he is the contributing editor of

For two years, he was a columnist for

can Film, Redbook and

Lovece has always been a writer. "People talk about being born to do somethinq." he savs. "lt's hue." He wai graduaied from St. Fran-

cis High School, but he

Billboardmaqazine. He is alslo the author of two bool<s: Thirty Years of Television. ("lt's a coffeetable book.") and Hailing Tat<i, The Official Book of the Shor,rz. written with Jules Franco. He is in the process of writing another book. "lt's about a show I can't stand a lot of The Brady Bunch - but apologizes. people love it," Lovece He is also working on what he calls "a graphic novel." It's a "relatively new medium, sort of like an adult comic book." He has intervierved Jane Fonda, Jimmy Stamrt, Bob HoPe' Chuck

saYs his muse was not nurtured when he was

young. "When I was growing uP ihere was l\4organtoun and there

was the universi$ town," he notes. "They proved the fact that two ob' ' jectstant occupy the same space. I was living in one creative communip and I didn't discover it until my senior vear of colleqe."' Af WVU Loveie was on the film committee. He was arts editor of the Daily Atheneum. He was the head of the coffeehouse committee, which

Photos

by Noncy Abroms

booked performers

magicians, comedians. He was on

the concert committee. Lovece won a creative writing contest at WVU both his j$nior and se nior vears. He became involved with

musicians;

Lovece orew uo in Morqontown. Now he covers the entertoinment industry from his home in *f, QitvY. Ourini o r".eit visit here, he used his stepfother's computer to work on his column ond Frank was a communications ma-

Nonis. Dennis Quaid and others. Not bad for a kid whose first Pub lished work was a poem Printed in

The Dominion Nb,ws. Not bad for a kid whose high school English teach

the Bridgegate Dinner Theater, made friendiwith actors.uriters. "lf I

any doubts that thiswas the I wanted to purstre, this them." Frank says. He speak

highly of one man, an early influence. "Lany Nelson was Eeat," he

says.

jor at West Mrginia University, Ead(Continued on Page 10)

Frank Lovece
(Continued from Page 9) uated cum laude. He was offered a scholarship to pursue graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School of Communication. "l came this close tb going," he pinches two fingers, "but I said if-l'm going to be a writer, be a writer." He thought about moving to Nzur York. "l coul! go to New York and bang my head against the'wall for five years or I could go to a mediumsize city and get my clips together ",and take them on the road ... which is what I did." Frank moved to Florida and took "every kind of temporary job you volved in what he calls "a srnall, visionary band of mad persons and rock 'n' rollers led by a middle aged
eccenhic genius."

The group produced the fiist "videozine," a magazine format video cassette. "lt's just started to gain a

He bristles at currnt stories that celebmte the 50th anniversary of television, dating the anniversary from the 1939 World's Fair in Nerp York. The real inventor of telwlsion is not Vladimir Zworykin, as RCA
would have the public believe, Frank says. "Zuiorykin is the primay invmtor of electic TV, bui just as important is the independent inventor Philip Farns,vorth. In the last ferr yars historians and scholars have confirmed his place in history. "Famsworth this is inefutable

hold now," Frank

says. "We urere

pushing the boundries." The video zines would include things like collections of commercials from other counhies. magnetic mail and journalistic pieces. That writing job led to the job at Vdeo Review.

'l wish I could say I watch "Masterpiece Theater,' " he- says with a Ein. "l do love PBS documentaries. "l like Wise Guy,'although I interviewed Ken Wahl and found him a very defensive and insecure person. I like 'l,{anied Wifi Children'with its 'take no prisoners' humor. *Married He calls Wifi Children" a "surrealistic farce. You have to respect their integrip."
His favorite shor,v right now is 'Murphy Brorun." Frank makes no apologies for his love of televjsion. In his preface to his "Ta)d" book he suggests that to damn tele\rision because of its formulaic fime shucture is the same as damning Elizabethan theater because it requires five acts. "Face it," he sa57s, his face eamest.

stepfather's computer, sending work, via a modem, to far-away places. It is a vacation for his wife, Toni, and their 14-month-old son Vincent. He refers to autobioEaphies writ: ten h7 Kirk Douglas, Frank Capra.

lThey had such success but at crit' ical junctures, they, admit that their families were the most important
things.

"My family is the most important thing in the world." But life can be complo<. Frank
tall.s about the week his son was bom. He was working on an article on Billy Ocean. On Tuesday, he was writing. Toni had gone to the hqspi-

He now writes about all

media.

can imagine-" He filled

sandbags,

was a moving man. "l was the guy at

covering werything from the industy standpoint to celebrities. "You have to do that to make a living" Frank grins. "Deep in my heart I'm a
social scientist

working all electic TV qBtem in *CBS 1927," Frank's voice rises .regular programming' sven had hours a day from 1931 to 1933.
Yes, RCA/NBC had er'tmsive programming, but it was still classified by

and his team,created the first

tal and the doctor had

assured

Frank she wouldn't be in "rqal",Jblor

the constuction site that sat in the

for hours. "He told me to gg to

work, so I went." The early labor became real:labor and at 12:30 a.m. Wednesdayrmqming, Mncent was born. "l rnanaged to'
,

tailer'and answered the phone," he

says.

He freelanced for mal.,gazines and ' finally received a job offer at Vdeo Review, "still one of the top two vi. deo magazines." At 25, Frank bemagazine. He shrugs off any allusions to success at a young agel 'llt's a young business," he say,s. "l talk to TV executives who think by the time you get to mg age, you must be a venerable ' old man." He laughs. Ten years ago, Frank became in-

He denies any addiction to tele. "l love W. I hate TV," he ad' mits. "Our generation is the first to be born with the W always there. {or them TV was a Our parents
vision.

the federal govemment as

mental as was all
1941r.',

a<peri1,

until July

- makes us different novelty. What

from succeeding generations is we
know our parents were beating it as

came

a senior editor at the

a novelty."

;'lt's

He concedes TV is
what

all-powerful. have aiways called the

second most powerlul thing on earth, the first being the atomic
bomb," Frank says.

stickler for accumcy. "RCA shouldn't ignore CBS's contibutions." He sa5n he told the complete story in a two part feahre he did in 1985 for Vdeomagaane. If questions about the history of the invention of television get Frank er<cited, questions about his favorite television show leave him with brour funowed.

Frank is

"Ninety percent of W is ----. But ninety percent of evmlhing is --: books, movies, dance. When W worlis, when it hits you on the gut level of a mass audience and the intellectural level of the critical minorig, then gou have arl . "Otherwlse, you have billboards
and jingles."

get the article finished by ternoon

Frank recalls. "On Thursday

15

p.rn,,'l
afCleese

I interviewed John (of A Fish Called Wanda fame) in a limosine. At 9 a.m. Friday I was at
the hospital to take my wife and baby home. At 11 a.m., we were home. At 1 p.m. I was back in midtown interviewing Bruce Willis." Frank grins. "That was a helluva
week."

Fmnk takes a b,reafi, lowers his voice. He is, after all, in Morgantor,vn on vacation. Or it urculd be vacation if he r,vasnt pounding auny on.his

I0-

PANORAMA Sundoy, Seplember 10, 1989