Telethon that Lewis memorably ran ends
Pardo inks deal with O’Brien’s Conaco
NEW YORK, May 2, (Agencies): The Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon is ending its annual Labor Day telethon, a television tradition for decades that has slowly disappeared from view since the sudden end of Jerry Lewis’ role as host following the 2010 show.
The telethon was a relic from a different age, a tuxedoed Lewis oozing show biz schmaltz and hosting stars from Frank Sinatra to Jennifer Lopez over 45 years, pushing through his exhaustion to sing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” as a tote board rang up millions of dollars in donations.
From 21 and a half hours in Lewis’ final year, the show had been reduced to two hours the last two years on ABC.
“It’s not a 21-hour world anymore,” said Steve Ford, MDA executive vice president, on Friday.
With television time costly, the MDA’s fundraising efforts will move primarily online, he said. The success of a viral event like “The Ice Bucket Challenge” proves this is a potent area for philanthropy, he said.
“The real heroes have always been our families, and what we need to do is make sure that every dollar we raise is spent working for our families,” he said.
The Labor Day tote board hit a record of $65 million in 2008, a figure Ford said reflected a full year’s worth of fundraising activities capped off by the telethon.
The MDA says the telethon itself has been responsible for more than $2 billion in giving.
Lewis’ abrupt exit, announced by the MDAa month before the 2011 telethon, was never fully explained.
The 89-year-old comedian declined to comment on Friday’s announcement, a spokeswoman said.
His history with the charity goes back nearly to its beginning: the MDA was started in 1950 and, a year later, Lewis and his comic partner Dean Martin mentioned the charity on their NBC show. The two comics hosted a 1956 telethon before breaking up. Lewis began hosting it regularly in 1966, starting on a single television station in New York.
The telethon was not without controversy; in the early 1990s it was picketed by a handful of disabled people who said people with the disease were being made objects of pity by Lewis to raise money.
Yet his roster through the years represented a who’s who of entertainment, including a post-Beatles John Lennon, Michael Jackson singing with and without his brothers, Liberace, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles and Celine Dion. Former Johnny Carson sidekick Ed McMahon filled the same role with Lewis on Labor Day for many years.
Comedian Jimmy Pardo has inked an overall TV deal with Conan O’Brien’s development and production company, Conaco, Variety has learned.
Under the pact, the standup comic, known as the warm-up comedian and panelist on “Conan,” will develop both scripted and unscripted reality programs for Conaco, which is based at the Warner Bros. TV group.
Pardo also hosted “Conan’s” backstage celebrity interview series “The Pardo Patrol” for TeamCoco.com, and served as the warm-up comedian on “The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien.” He also hosts his weekly podcast “Never Not Funny,” which debuted in 2006.
FX is getting into business with Oscar-winning producer John Singleton, ordering his drama pilot “Snowfall.”
Singleton (“Boyz n the Hood”) will direct the pilot based on a script he cowrote with Eric Amadio. The announcement was made by Nick Grad and Eric Schrier, presidents of original programming, FX Networks and FX Productions.
The one-hour drama will be set in Los Angeles in 1981 against the infancy of the crack cocaine epidemic and its impact on the culture. The story follows three characters on a violent collision course: Franklin Saint, a young street entrepreneur on a quest for power; Gustavo Zapata, a Mexican wrestlerturned-gangster in search of his American dream; and Logan Miller, a prominent family’s “black sheep” desperate to escape his father’s shadow.
Before David Letterman bids adieu to latenight on May 20, CBS will celebrate the host with a retrospective primetime special, airing Monday, May 4.
The 90-minute tribute, hosted by Ray Romano, will feature highlights from Letterman’s three decades in television, including musical performers, top guests and that Drew Barrymore appearance.