Citizens' Voice from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania • 55

TelevisionFocus Mann behind 'Miami Vice' has colorful tastes By BARBARA ISENBERG LoiAngtlw Tlmw (which was never produced) in the early '80s, and he figures he still has 10 years worth of stories to draw on. "Anything I get into, I research very deeply," he explains. "If I'd been this assiduous in college, I'd have been Phi Beta Kappa." The producer also clearly enjoys the good life. Mann, his wife Summer and their four children recently got back from a vacation in Jamaica and visit England three times a year. He had a series of "hot motorcycles" in the 60s he still has one in the garage and likes fast cars.

Mann is just back in town after writing and directing "Red Dragon," a feature film for Dino de Laurentiis and MGM, based on Thomas Harris' novel about a former FBI forensic specialist brought back to track a "savage, homicidal psychopath." He is working on a new series for NBC called "Crime Story" whose plot, characters and everything else are "a state secret." their look), and says that movie had 18 sound-effect sequences that were harmonized to be in the same musical key as Tangerine Dream's music cues. When the waves crashed, says Mann, they actually crashed in A Minor. Other sequences were done a half tone out "to create an emotional or psychological feeling of dissonance." Music is at the heart of "Miami Vice," whose album just passed 3 million in sales and is the first TV soundtrack to be certified either gold (500,000 sales) or platinum (1 million). Music ranging from Gregorian chants to reggae, Kate Bush to the Doors, is cued to the plot. Glenn Frey's hit "Smuggler's Blues," for instance, was prominently featured on one episode.

"I'm musically uneducated, but I have very good recall," says "Vice" executive producer Mann. "And I know what it ought to feel like." Currently featured on the tape deck in his black Ferrari: '40s swing bands, Baroque music, and the Stones. The man who Time Magazine called Vice's "stylistic guru" portrays himself as an ambulatory sponge, absorbing experiences and stories everywhere he can. Chicago gave him his accent, a taste for Polish sausage, an uncle whose love of architecture rubbed off, and memories of the Pissarro collection at the Chicago Art Institute which influenced the way he created perspective in "Thief." "Miami Vice" heroes Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson) and Ricardo Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas) often reconnoiter with dope-dealers, killers and other low-life types in exotic locales on a budget of more than $1.3 million per show and Mann is asked where all those story plots come from? His answer: "The garbage that's banging around inside your head from some experience you had somewhere. If you're a storyteller or a writer, that's your bank account." Mann took three trips to Thailand while working on a screenplay for Paramount HOLLYWOOD The walls of Michael Mann's Universal Studios office were just painted black.

The Mies van der Rohe chairs are black leather and stainless steel, and coming soon is a black credenza. "I love it," says the 42-year-old producer, dressed nearly all in black himself. "This place is visually quiet." Not exactly. Mann's black-jacketed elbows rest on a huge aqua desk with red trim and a yellow base, courtesy of Milan's Memphis design group. The man who produced the highly stylized movie "Thief" and then the hit TV series "Miami Vice," knows a nice color scheme when he sees one.

Consider the blacks and blues of "Thief," which starred James Caan as a Chicago hood with big dreams, big expenses and bad judgment. Mann was in London for the theatrical release of his Emmy-winning TV show "The Jericho Mile" when he spotted a cobalt blue, pink and violet tie in a Covent Garden men's shop. "Take the tie and stick it against a wet black street and you have Mann says. "I made an $11 million Inspiration for "Miami Vice's" fabled pinks, aquas and other colors wasn't particularly "brilliant" either, Mann says. He visited Miami, looked around and threw into his mental Osterizer the tones, colors, rhythm and feel of the city.

The show's high-fashion undercover cops drive their black Ferrari through photogenic Miami neighborhoods, and Mann credits the city's Streamline Moderne architects with setting the stage as well as choosing its colors. Chicago-born Mann came out of the London Film School determined to make movies with "a full palette." The film maker sent water trucks with film crews to water down Chicago's streets for "Thief" (to enhance CBN to air Christmas special Wednesday, Dec. 25, at 7 a.m. on CBN Cable Network. The internationally famous animated series has been seen throughout South America, in the Phillipines, Italy, England and South Africa.

A marvelous historical and spiritual volume found in Chris and Joy's attic transports the two children and their robot, Gizmo, back to the time of the first Christmas in "The Superbook Christmas Special" Sunday, Dec. 22, at 7:30 p.m., and New WDAU chief won't settle for second best Geri Anne Kaikowski Tube talk what station I'm affiliated with don't ask about him. He's a real asset," says his boss. He admits the fact that WNEP had him first can only help them. After all, he notes, with a laugh, "We hired him, didn't we? While it may seem that WDAU is constantly making changes, Fiorile defends this by stating that the station is just more visible than it has been in the past.

"We still have the same faces. Debbie Dunleavy (co-anchor with Essex), Dave DeCosmo and Derry Bird have all been here a long time. Even Gary is a familiar face." The station has been criticized in the past for neglecting Wilkes-Barre and surrounding communities in favor of Scranton where its home base is. "The problem is one of perception," Fiorile says. "WBRE is located in Wilkes-Barre therefore people think of them as a Wilkes-Barre station.

We're in Scranton so people assume we cover that city more. WNEP took neutral ground by locating in Avoca." Fiorile sees the addition of its Luzerne County News Bureau in Wilkes-Barre as a definite advantage in the station's climb to the top. But, in all fairness, Fiorile feels WNEP deserves to be number one in the ratings (for the moment, at least) because that station has worked hard for the top spot. "It has steadily built an audience base for the' past 10 to 15 years when this station started to decline," he notes. "They've done a lot of things right for a long time.

But they haven't had some stiff competition until now." First things first. WDAU still has to beat WBRE. That isn't as difficult as it was once thought to be, according to Fiorile. "WNEP won the ratings by default and WBRE picked up some of what was left," he says. "Someone told me once that if you do some basic blocking and tackling sooner or later you will get a touchdown." The game has only just begun for WDAU.

WDAU, the lowest rated of the three local television news stations, has tied WBRE for second place in the 6 p.m. Ar-bitron ratings for November. Is the station happy? Yes. Are they content? No. "I'd like to be number one tomorrow," states Michael Fiorile, who has held the position of president and general manager of WDAU for more than a month now.

"Our intention is to be number one. It's a matter of how long it will take us. We don't want to be number two. We want to be number one and we'll do whatever it takes to accomplish that." Fiorile is no stranger to the task of taking a low-rated news operation and building its ratings. He revamped KX-TV in Sacramento when that station was a distant fourth in a five station market.

It's now a solid number two. With some changes in programming and more visibility than it has shown in the past, he is trying to make WDAU "The Pride of Pennsylvania." You see, that's the recorded promotion slogan on the airwaves. And it's the feeling in the air as the station vies to topple WNEP from the number one spot. It won't happen overnight, Fiorile concedes, but he remains adamant about the ratings battle. The station is pulling out all the stops.

If ambition alone could do the trick, WDAU would hold the top spot tomorrow. What the station really needs now more than anything is a bigger audience. Fiorile agrees. I'People get comfortable with a newscast and see no reason to change. We need to have more viewers sample our product," he says, noting that he watches the three newscasts simultaneously.

"Up against the other two, I have to say that our product is a damned professional newscast." The strategy for WDAU can be summed up in two words: "community commitment." Fiorile is interested in not only promoting the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre areas, but also the outlying communities such as the recent live broadcast from an area blood drive. He plans meetings with area business leaders to find out how WDAU can help them in meeting the needs of the community together. "We owe a tremendous amount to this community. The media has a great amount of influence. The area is on the verge of greater things and if we can hasten this then we'll help," he says.

That spirit of "community commitment" extended so far as to help another local station make money when Fiorile and anchor Gary Essex recently worked during WVIA's pledge campaign. It was an unusual situation, Fiorile admits, but he feels that public broadcasting is an important asset to this community. "Would I help WNEP or WBRE in a similiar situation? he laughs, good naturedly. "No, probably not." Ironically, another piece of ammunition WDAU 22 holds in its power to fight WNEP is one of their former anchors, Gary Essex, who had a strong area following before his departure four years ago. "Gary helped tremendously.

There's not an event that I go to where people who know.