South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Retiring Brokaw ‘was in the right place at the right time’
NEW YORK — If Tom Brokaw has one piece of advice to leave for television journalists upon his retirement, it’s to get out to more of the country — and not just to visit.
The Capitol insurrection is but one example of a story that might not have seemed as much a surprise if more journalists were attuned to communities outside of the power centers, the veteran NBC newsman said.
Television news is “much, much too wedded to the East Coast and West Coast only” and needs to expand its presence across the country.
“Take some of the people who are only in Washington and send them to Salt Lake City or Kansas City, or St. Louis for that matter,” he said.
Brokaw, who turns 81 this month, recently announced he’s retiring from NBC News, where he worked for 55 years. He said he has been overwhelmed and heartened by the outpouring of good wishes from colleagues and people who watched him on TV for many of those years.
He has been away from the power centers himself and hasn’t been to New York since before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. He has split time between homes in Montana and Florida.
His advice to the industry he’s leaving behind has nothing to do with the sort of they-don’t-make-’em-like-theyused-to criticism you might get from older people in any business. Brokaw said he’s impressed with the work of young journalists at NBC News and elsewhere, and is invested in seeing them succeed.
He believes a reorientation can take place without a significant outlay of money for an industry that has seen a twodecade decline in local news coverage.
“I don’t want to knock what they’re doing now because they get on an airplane and go to these places, and they do a good job,” he said. “But I always found it was best to invest yourself in different parts of the country and get to know the politics and culture.”
Brokaw has kept busy in the years since he stepped down as “NBC Nightly News” anchor in 2004, doing documentaries, appearing on “Morning Joe” and the network during newsy occasions for commentary and writing. He’s finishing a book about his parents and their life growing up during the Depression in South Dakota.
For two decades, Brokaw, Peter Jennings at ABC and Dan Rather at CBS dominated television news — a period in which cable and digital news sources either didn’t exist or weren’t nearly as established as they are.
Brokaw recalled that when the late Jennings was asked whether the three men were friends he responded, “kind of.” They were competitors but had a shared value system, Brokaw said.
“I grew up in Yankton, South Dakota, hoping that one day maybe I’ll get to appear on NBC News with (Chet) Huntley and (David) Brinkley,” he said. “And, by God, it was within three years I was on Huntley-Brinkley, first from Omaha and then from California.
“It was bang, bang, bang, just like that,” he said, “and it frankly astonished me, astonished my parents and my friends back in South Dakota. I caught the merrygo-round, and I was in the right place at the right time.” gondolas.
Mickey’s recognizable head dominates the looks, but other characters and theme-park attractions pop up. Primary colors, frequently in blocks, are used, but they appear deeper than your basic blue, red and yellow crayons.
“I think we’re in that period right now where color is important. Especially in the world that we live in ... we all want to get outside and to celebrate color,” Lezotte said.
The richer hues help expand the line beyond a kiddie look, he said.
“In this program, in the apparel, we go from adults down to infants. It is really about that family celebration,” Lezotte said. “It is a trend that we don’t see going away. Social media certainly has influenced that. People love to take pictures in front of the icons at the parks with their entire family all in coordinating outfits.”
Disney made date-specific souvenirs — with the year prominently featured upon them — since at least the early 1990s, Lezotte said. Before that, the resort was more anniversary-driven, say, for the 10th anniversary of Magic Kingdom or other milestones, he said.
The dated program is one of the bestselling lines in the theme parks, Lezotte said.
“People have that sort of attachment to being part of a tribe, and so if you’re able to buy the sweatshirt every year, then that means that you are a part of a tribe. … I think people love it for that reason,” said A.J. Wolfe, who runs the unofficial Disney Food Blog and follows theme-park trends.
“If they went to Disney World, even once, they like to commemorate that year.”
Fans also like merchandise tied to events, such as the openings of Toy Story Land and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge or the end of the run for the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights, she said.
“I think people also buy, as investments, merchandise that they think they’re going to be able to sell on eBay or sell as the years go on,” Wolfe said.
The 2021-dated souvenirs and their color-blocking remind Wolfe of 1990s looks.
“It does feel like we’re still pulling on designs from the past that we know were popular,” she said. “I mean, it is not subtle at all. … It’s very accessible to anybody, but I do think it is very, very bold. You have to want to stand out.”
The creative process for Disney’s dated material starts about 18 months in advance, Lezotte said.
“We’re looking for emerging trends, things that we think will continue to grow and will appeal to our broad demographic base,” he said.
“Hydration is something that you’ve seen evolve at the parks over the years, so recently, they added an acrylic tumbler with a straw,” Lezotte said. “This also plays into sustainability.” It’s one of the top-selling items in the 2021 program, he said.
But who could predict the dark cloud that was 2020 and the effect it would have on dated merchandise? Who would buy a T-shirt that reminds them of last year?
Every year, the challenge is to have plenty of stock (making for happy customers) but not have many left over (making for unhappy stockholders), Lezotte said.
“When we began 2020, we were able to make sure that we were positioning ourselves in a way from an inventory standpoint to minimize what we would be left with and to allow us to kind of make that clean break at the end of 2020,” he said.
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