The Keys to the Kingdom by Kim Masters Page A

went far enough to earn the picture one of the highest ratings for any made-for-television movie.
    Filming had been completed on Twenty-one Hours at Munich, a movie about the terrorist attack at the 1972 Olympics. “One thing that we discussed here…because the heat on this whole Israeli terrorism story is so immense—is to make sure that we have Twenty-one Hours at Munich early enough to take advantage of that,” Eisner told Silverman.
    Eisner addressed a number of complaints on the taped message to Silverman: The New York office was interfering too much with decisions that should be made in Los Angeles and needed to be brushed back. “Otherwise, we will kill ourselves,” he said in a brief, semihumorous but pointed warning. Another Spelling project in the works—a film named The Boy in the Plastic Bubble —needed script work and a cast. Eisner wanted a teenage actor named Gary Frank from the series Family . If not, he said, “one of the kids from Kotter is a possibility, Robbie Benson is a possibility.” The kid from ABC’s hit series Welcome Back, Kotter —John Travolta—got the part.
    The seminal miniseries Roots, based on Alex Haley’s book, was also in the middle of shooting. The only disappointment, Eisner told his boss, was actor John Amos as the central character, the mature Kunta Kinte. Amos is “strong, powerful, and not a good enough actor to match the rest of the people in the cast, but that won’t be a problem ’cause we’ll cut around him and so forth,” Eisner assured Silverman. Others appearing in the miniseries included LeVar Burton, Ed Asner, Cicely Tyson, Lorne Green, Ben Vereen, Leslie Uggams, Chuck Conners, Louis Gossett Jr., Sandy Duncan, and O. J. Simpson. “So that’s a pretty good cast,” Eisner said. The same group, he joked, would also put in a guest appearance on an upcoming episode of The Streets of San Francisco .
    Eisner also used the memo to provide a night-by-night update on ABC’s regular series. The Six Million Dollar Man —the Lee Majors show about a bionic man with superhuman powers—was in its third season and Eisner said an October episode would feature a guest appearance by Farrah Fawcett, the lavishly maned former model who was red-hot in the new series Charlie’s Angels . “Farrah is a little flat ’cause she’s not the greatest actress in the world, but it’s going to be an excellent episode with flashy holographics—whatever those are,” Eisner reported.
    Eisner also fretted about Baretta, a Roy Huggins series starring Robert Blake as a streetwise cop who lived with a cockatoo named Fred. Blake had started running the show “in his kind of insane way,” Eisner said, and was now said to be “an inch from cracking.” Eisner had also been told that Blake—who had a problem with substance abuse at this time—“looks drawn and sullen and strange and noncommunicative and very, very weird.” The show was behind schedule. “They’ve got to catch up,” Eisner said. “He’s letting the producers take over and he’s running scared. I don’t know what’s going to happen…. We’re exercising as much control as possible without putting Blake away.” Blake later said he was doing what was necessary to maintain the show’s quality. It lasted for one more season.
    Whatever his initial misgivings, Eisner now said he was thrilled with Charlie’s Angels . “Whenever the girls are on-screen, the screen lights up and they are beautiful and sexy and in character,” he said. Welcome Back, Kotter was rolling along and The Streets of San Francisco was in good shape. Carsey’s pet project was having problems with the actor who played a popular character named Fish. “ Barney Miller is not quite as smooth as it should be but it never has been,” Eisner said. “Abe Vigoda did not