Birmingham Post-Herald from Birmingham, Alabama • 38

A A VasJaAft L2Jmu lamaaHga A IABY iVV 9f RVRH MBBmIwi PWNnpnwR CTlQByi MnWy ITS or remains true to actual story By MARK SCHWS UH TV Editor Gilbert self-pittyingly discussed this with my wife Betty We reached any conclusion because we feel it's something you settle with talk Betty's not too keen about it inclined to be for it you cannot conjecture this thing on a chair looking out a window Only a crisis will reveal how we will Gilbert is in a cell at Florida's Avon Park Correctional Institute a long way from the Sea Ranch Lakes condominium where he and his wife planned to live out their last years He is there many believe because of his attitude in tbs courtroom He came off as cold calculating unrepentive A few tears may have helped his cause but that was not way jury saw only the man on the witness stand Young saya "They read his attitude Ms lack of emotion as arrogance and cold-bloodedness He was really playing a role He was determined not to play upon their sympathies not to grovel or to brook down emotionally He didn't do it in the courtroom and as a result the jurors spoke about his coldness after the trial you do see him break down in the film in front of his prison psychologist in a dramatic scene in which he is sort of ranting and raving about the place Then all of a sudden he snaps right in front of your eyes and he just wilts and starts to cry and The TV movie tries to stay true to the facts All the dialogue and scenes come from court transcripts and recollections of those who played a role in the case will certainly give people something to think Young says may not make a decision about mercy killing based on this film but it will certainly have its THE DETAILS ar Mankrr akv at fa -r it NEW YORK Roswell Gilbert a 75-year-old electronics engineer who retired to the good life in south Florida retrieved the gun from his workshop loaded it and shot his wife of 51 yean in the right temple He felt her wrist detected a pulse reloaded and shot her again in the head The misery was over But whose misery was it? Was it for enduring yean of his suffering from body-crippling osteoporosis and mind-warping Alrheimer's disease? Or was it for enduring the pain? The case of Roswell Gilbert was important for a nation that is slowly graying and especially important for Florida where many of the elderly go to live before they die Can a person kill to end a loved one's suffering or is it murder by another name? Gilbert didn't just pull the plug He pulled the trigger and he pulled it twice In real life the Jury convicted Gilbert of first-degree murder and sent him to prison for life But actor Robert Young who days Gilbert in the NBC movie or airing Sunday so sure For Young the Gilbert case was a Utter-sweet pilL Good parts come along often for 80-year-old actors But it also struck a personal chord Young and his wife of 54 years have discussed what to do if either one becomes insufferably ill almost ruined me in that I got so emotionally involved in the thing that the director had to take me aside and talk to Young says caught me several times reading as Robert Young I was feeling sorry for Roswell Gilbert so I was playing Roswell Young plays Roswell Gilbert imprisoned for shooting his incurably ill wife WBMG prepares to sign on with new news program By MITCH MENDRSON KUOZU Eaportor Putting into practice the theory of journalistic competition mm news is better newa network television station will offer us Action News starting Monday at a TV near you Since I do believe that more news is at least better than less news I ought to welcome the Action Newsers to town However I admit to being biased against the shallowness and triviality of most television news reports To my jaun-1 diced eye it looks like pretty people acting concerned about car wrecks and house fires then devoting 10 minutes to cheerful talk about But wait these folks say be different They say that more-competition means a better program and going to give us a different angle on local news To my way of thinking TV news is TV news but the Constitution guarantees them the right to give it a shot people in the region They are not covering metropolitan Birmingham as he says In the heavy time pressure of television every news report from Mobile or Montgomery means less time for local news 'The viewers benefit from competition new blood and we think going to Morock says Point granted Now the question of whether the Action News team is ready to meet our presumably desperate need for local news just say a dress rehearsal this week was by assessment around the There were predictable errors in local pronounciation such as former Jefferson County Commissioner and commissioner-elect A reporter seem real dear on the difference between the city government of Birmingham and the agency now known as the Water Works and Sewer Board of the City of Birmingham You may not be real dear on that difference either but something reporters should know But they seem to mean well The newsroom is nicely decked out with equipment and has that certain air of barely controlled chaos that makes newsrooms different from say banking offices Folks sit around looking harried reading the newspaper eating the odd hamburger talking on the phone writing reports Just like a well like a newsroom A state map on one wall underscores point about metro area news: The five-county Birmingham area is outlined in bright ydlow That says Morock is where 73 percent of the people in the Birmingham television market live and those are the people Channel 43 wants to reach when WBMG Action News Birmingham goes on the air at 5 o'clock Monday evening I don't expect them to be all that different from the other guys but 111 be sporting about it Good luck fellas and hey prove me wrong sWfcflfrvA LIFE ON THE VINEf and prettier anchorpersons Channel 43 did the smart thing it got out of the news business Fast-forward (as they say in the TV bis) five years Channel 43 has spent about $5 million on equipment strengthened its broadcast signal rolled up some bucks and expanded its coverage area At the same time 6 and 13 have leveled off a little There are just so many helicopters to buy and so many ways to be cute with the weatherman Because of cable transmissions and their own equipment improvements 6 and 13 are reaching an even broader area' so now pushing regional news meaning that we now get wrecks and city council meetings from Tuscaloosa and Anniston and elsewhere So along comes Channel 43 saying hey do a local newscast Daddy Warbucks up In Ithaca NY (head-quartos of the parent company Park Broadcasting Inc) says sure fellas 15 million for the first year They build a fancy set (complete with mauve carpeting and marbelite copper and oak trim) buy a bunch of rideo-tape editing machines personal computers (no mere typewriters for this state-of-the-art bunch) and other equipment and hire a staff of about 30 folks Bingo in the news bix It's not quite that simple but you get the drift As I see it the key quation is why do these people think we (as in Birmingham) need more local TV news? Dot?" responds news director Frank Morock do we need two newspapers? People want a choice Our slogan is the Our approach to news is different We think Birmingham is ready for more Birmingham news 'The other stations are trying to be all things to all i FOr a good while now Birmingham has been a two-news-show town Tie CBS affiliate WBMG-TV (Channel 42) gave up its limp news program about five years ago The rimpiwt reason is a technical one: As a relatively low-power UHF station Channel 43 reach as many people as the relatively higher-power VHF affiliates of NBC and ABC (WVTM and WBRC channels 13 and respectively) Without getting really technical about stuff I understand just say that excluding cable transmissions VHF stations cover a wider area than UHF sta- So there sat Channel 43 with a losing news show at a time when and 13 were spending lots of money on helicopters and insta-cam crews and fancy new logos I 4 I I 1 If i I.