A Television Dinner at Andy's

Back in 1969 or 1070 I had just become involved in public television as the chief aide to Frank Pace who had been appointed by President Johnson as the first Chairman of the Board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting - this was time of the real beginning of what we now know of as pulic tv. We were living in Rowayton , Connecitcut, a wonderful, almost unspoiled town on the Long IslandSound. This small town was notable among the other suburbs as having a number of writers , painters, journalists and a playwright. Jimmy Ernst, Gabor Peterdi, Harry Marinsk , Dick Griffiths among others....It wasn't an expensive place to live or rent in those days and some of the artists of all kinds in my generation were beginning to come into their own.

Andy Rooney - at that time either with CBS or NBC I don't remeber which - lived about five miles from our house with his wife Marg who taught my kids at the local elementary school. One summer night Andy and Marg invited us to a small dinner party at their house. On arrival I was pleaed to see that one of the other guesta was Harry Reasoner who was further advanced in his career and had already made a considerable mark as a television journalist.

Everything was very pleasant through the cocktail hour, but during dinner Harry made, what seemed to ne. a violent attack on public television. He said that government had no business getting involved in Tv - whether it was news or entertainment and surely no journalist who was getting paid directly or indirectly with Federal money could be counted on to give unbiased reports. I took strong exception to this point of view and the argument got quite out of hand to the somewhat embarrassment of the other guests....But before leaving it calmed down and we all shook hands amiocably, at least on the surface.

The nest morning about ten o'clock I was in my office at WNET/Thirteen , the NYC public tv station, when a messenger arrived with Harry's card and a short note which read: "Ward, last night I broke the cardinal rule of Fairfield County. I discussed a serious subject after more than two martinis. Plse accept my apologies.".. I have always thought that was such a gracious act on Harry's part. In one form or other, I have used it on two occasions in the past forty years of dinner parties when I felt I had perhaps gone too far. Some people, I am sure, would say that I might have used it on more than the two occasions. In succeeding years I got to know Harry and much admired him........This incident came to mind over the weekend as I was watching on C-Span a remarkale interview with Andy Rooney during which he talk about many of his interestiing experiences in WWII.