America 1982-Chapter 444 - 68: Sick-minded little Turner

Just a few days after Tommy had returned to Los Angeles, Herbert called him and said that he and Turner Jr. hoped to visit BT Entertainment Production Company and chat with Tommy and the program production team leader, Rick Russo, to understand why the original programs produced by BT had astonishingly high ratings, while the original programs of the three major television networks under Turner Jr.’s name, CNN, TPS, TNT, had consistently flopped.

In the conference room of BT Entertainment, the decisive Turner Jr. was definitely a man of action. After taking his seat and exchanging pleasantries, this fifty-year-old white man with a beard stared straight at Tommy, eager for an answer to his question.

Tommy didn’t speak hastily, not because he was afraid of saying the wrong thing and getting punched by Turner Jr. like he famously did to Murdoch in a fit of rage, but rather, the old man’s gray-blue eyes conveyed sincerity. He truly didn’t understand why his meticulously produced series of original movies, dramas, and reality shows failed to win the audience’s love. He had come to Los Angeles with the mindset of seeking advice from BT Television Network, his junior in the industry.

This hot-headed, loud-voiced, crudely-spoken old man, who was born in Ohio and liked to buy land as soon as he made money, and relaxed by riding horses and herding cattle on his ranch back home, seemed at first glance not too different from Tommy’s father, who ran the show in Warwick.

But in actuality, Turner Jr. was an undoubted Democratic Party supporter, who liked to pay attention to and ponder over serious issues such as environmental protection, world peace, anti-nuclear deterrence, and the American social system.

Many Democratic Party supporters, and even Democratic politicians, liked to act under the guise of environmentalism and equal rights. Even Tommy was used to casually throwing around these concepts, but for him and those others, they were just slogans, tools to embellish their own image. However, Turner Jr. was the real deal. He genuinely believed that America needed to pay attention to environmental protection, the world needed peace, Americans needed universal healthcare, and he was willing to make an effort to promote these causes.

Moreover, his style of personally involving himself in matters, often interfering in the specific production of programs, meant that the shows produced by his networks often contained a lot of content he wanted the audience to understand—typical propaganda. It’s no wonder that such program production rarely turned out well.

For instance, Fox Television Network had recently renamed a cartoon series, previously a warm-up act for talk shows, to "The Simpsons" and expanded its single episode length to thirty minutes for a primetime pilot. It was a cartoon series about the daily life of a typical blue-collar family in Ohio, United State America.

Although the series often joked about the government and capitalists, depicting all politicians as corrupt and capitalists as greedy, and the police as nothing but shrugging indifferently, each story ended well. Most importantly, the series conveyed the message that despite imperfections in America, the people living there were optimistic, kind, and affluent. The country was still strong, and all the seemingly overwhelming troubles seemed, in retrospect, just laughable events from the past.

It was a cartoon series, yet its characters and plotlines resonated strongly with the average American viewer. Fox’s ten-episode trial run, hastily prepared to test the waters, immediately broke into the network’s top ten ratings. Such performance in its pilot phase led Fox to quickly assemble an impressive team of over twenty professionals for the series, ensuring that the first official season would be even more captivating than the pilot episodes.

Seeing the success of "The Simpsons" on Fox, Turner Jr. took it upon himself to script and produce a cartoon series for a primetime pilot, promoting environmentalism with a show called "Captain Planet," hoping to educate Americans about environmental pollution and increase environmental awareness through animation.

However, the result of these two cartoons battling it out during the same time slot was that "The Simpsons" on Fox garnered unanimous praise from both newspapers and television viewers, with many TV magazines giving it top ratings.

Turner Jr.’s "Captain Planet," a series that he believed perfectly combined depth and entertainment, didn’t even manage to complete its fifteen-episode trial run. It was abruptly pulled off the air due to numerous complaints from viewers that the various monster designs had scared their children into tears, and it was accused of creating panic among children under the guise of environmental concerns. The show had to go back to the drawing board for remodeling.

Another example is a previous Fox Movie Channel release, "Pray for Me," a low-budget TV movie with a decent reception among viewers. It told the story of American pilots carrying atomic bombs to bomb Japan, ultimately returning safely home. It harshly depicted the brutality of Japan through the protagonist’s recollections of his brother’s death at Pearl Harbor, making the protagonist’s decision to volunteer to drop the atomic bomb seem completely justified. He didn’t need to feel guilty; he wasn’t a murderer of hundreds of thousands; he was eradicating fascism and a hero ending the war for America.

Let’s take a look at the moves made by young Turner. TNT’s made-for-TV movie "The Long Shadow," which also tells the story of nuclear weapons, revolves around a doctor involved in the development and testing of nuclear weapons radiation. By chance, he meets a soldier who is dying of cancer caused by exposure to nuclear radiation. This encounter makes him realize that the nuclear weapons he previously thought were meant to defend world peace were actually the greatest obstacle to that peace, plunging the protagonist into deep reflection and guilt.

There’s no need to watch the movie; just by reading the summary, any normal American knows which film they’d choose to pass the time with, after all, watching a movie is for pleasure, not for depression.

The editors at the Los Angeles Times gave their opinion after seeing "Nightcrawler": Turner must be crazy, and even more so than the protagonist of the film.

"The most important thing, just like I discussed with Mr. Siegel in New York, is trust. Trust the production team and try to minimize interference with them," Tommy said to Turner with a smile:

"Communicate with them, discuss a general idea, and if I approve it, then the subsequent work is entirely up to them. They’ll hold serious meetings to see if the idea is viable, then conduct market research, work on the details, and such; I won’t be involved in those steps. Generally, I’ll meet with the production team three times before a homemade program is completed. The first time to discuss ideas together, the second time to hear their project plan based on the idea and decide whether or not to invest money, and the third time to watch a rough cut with them."

Turner stared at Tommy intently: "I feel like you’re implying I should learn to keep my mouth shut, kid."

"I know you and your father, Mr. Turner, are both micro-management masters with a background in economics from Brown University. You can remember the locations of thousands of billboards across America and even the content of the ads they carry, knowing the contract period for each and what kind of ads fit which billboard. I truly admire that, but program production doesn’t need micromanagement. You can’t be the director, producer, screenwriter, lighting, stylist... This isn’t the ad business where a boss can easily double as a salesman. This is the TV industry, which emphasizes teamwork," Tommy said, taking a sip of his Coke.

"You’re just hinting that I should shut up," Turner repeated, but he started to laugh. "Actually, I’ve realized that I’m not a prodigy, at least not in program production, and that’s why I hoped to use Warner for investment, not my own name—I’m afraid I couldn’t help but meddle if I joined your board. Warner, on the other hand, they’ll send a good-tempered executive to sit on the board."

After chatting with Turner for a while, Rick Russo finished arranging his work and brought his team to the meeting room to meet Turner.

Tommy wasn’t particularly interested in these detailed production process discussions. When Turner shifted his focus and began bombarding Rick with curious questions, Tommy took the opportunity to leave. He went to another small meeting room to drink coffee with Herbert Siegel, who had come with Turner, and asked him what kind of entertainment he would choose if he had a few months’ leisurely holiday.

They weren’t seated for more than five minutes, debating whether to spend the time learning mountaineering skills or practicing skiing, when they heard footsteps outside. The next second, Rick Russo appeared at the door with a strange look on his face.

"It’s only been five minutes," Tommy said, glancing at his watch, and then addressing Rick: "I feel like that’s not even enough time for you to have introduced all of your team to Mr. Turner." 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Rick gave Tommy a pitiful shrug and said softly, "The conversation didn’t go too well; Mr. Turner thinks I’m insincere, and I think he’s crazy."