Willard Scott Doesn’t See Clouds in Life
Call him a big lug and Willard Scott, the “Today” show weather guru who has turned his morning reports into fireside sewing sessions, doesn’t even flinch.
“I try to go to the line to make people laugh and sometimes I go too far,” he says of the Everybody’s Pal persona he brings to his daily appearances on NBC’s morning news program. “Everything I do looks like it just falls into place, so maybe they don’t realize that part of what I do is make it fall into place. You have to work at being a buffoon.”
Tell Scott he’ll be doing those weather reports for the next hundred years, and that’s also fine.
“I’m in the position at ‘Today’ where if the numbers go up, they say, ‘Willard’s a good boy; he helped us,’ but if they go down, ‘It’s not his fault,’ so I can’t lose,” he insists. “I’d be a fool to walk away from that.”
Tell him he’ll never get that talk show he always dreamed of hosting and even that, he’d like you to believe, is OK.
“I don’t know if I want to invest that kind of time now,” the 53-year-old Scott says matter-of-factly. “I don’t want to be crass about it, but why should I knock myself out? I love the ‘Today’ show. It’s kind of like an annuity--all you have to do is show up.”
Three failed pilots have discouraged Scott, whose 37-year broadcasting career has included work as a weathercaster, announcer, disc jockey and radio show host, plus stints as Washington’s Bozo the Clown, the original Ronald McDonald and the voice of NASA for two decades.
But coping with the realization that he probably will never have that show seems the only subject that can shake his ever-present optimism. It soon becomes apparent his words are a shield to protect himself from disappointment.
“Maybe there is a little spark that’s missing,” he later acknowledges, “but I’ve reached a point where maybe I just want to live and relax and have more fun. I wouldn’t hesitate if it came up--I’d be there tomorrow morning--but at this point I’m not going to fight for it.”
Scott was in town filming scenes for his recently created role of Peter Poole on NBC’s “Valerie’s Family.” Contract renegotiations a couple of years back gave him unusual (for NBC News) provisions that allow appearances on other NBC shows plus outside work as a TV pitchman.
The agreement, he realizes, was something of a bone thrown by the network. Seven years on “Today”--he joined in 1980--had made him a little antsy and it was no secret he was looking for ways to stretch.
“A guy told me years ago, ‘When you’re green you grow, when you’re ripe you start to rot,’ ” he says. “You have to progress to have fun.
“These last three days (of filming) have made a great difference in my attitude,” Scott says with the characteristic enthusiasm that has turned him into a favorite of cake-bakers, quilt-makers and centenarians throughout the country. “It’s nice to be a greenhorn again.”
Scott, sans toupee, plays a character not too unlike himself. The third of four segments in which he appears this season will be broadcast at 8:30 tonight.
“The first show I did made me really depressed. I had trouble trying to capture myself in a character without being too phony,” he says. “You know how I am--too strong, too loud and too overbearing. For camera work that’s disastrous, and they really had to tone me down.
“I came out of there feeling totally inadequate,” he adds, “but then I saw it and it came off much better than expected--the old line about how they can make a monkey look good--so I’m much more comfortable.”
In a way, it also has made him more comfortable with the prospect of never having his TV talk-show fantasy fulfilled. Combined with hosting chores for last year’s Macy’s Parade (“which meant more to me than anyone realized”), he might just be content with his career as it now stands.
“I can’t go out of NBC, so we were trying to tailor a show for the network,” he says of his efforts to develop a vehicle for himself, “but they didn’t buy it. They didn’t think I had it, and if they’re not looking for a blue suit. . . . “
For a rare moment, Scott laments. “Even affiliates, NBC people, will pay $20,000 for an (in-person) appearance and wait two years to get you, but then they won’t buy your show. They say it won’t sustain.”
He now almost believes what his former boss at “Today” told him a few years back. “(Executive producer Steve) Friedman used to always say that he was a big fan, a big supporter, but he thought I was only good in small doses. He said if he used me too much, then I would wear thin.
“I bought it for a while,” Scott says, “but no one wants to be told that’s all they’re good for. I’ve changed my act too many times, and I think that’s why I survived.
“I don’t expect people to look at me like I’m doing Shakespeare or being a great contributor to the establishment, but every once in a while. . . .” He pauses. “There’s a real shortcoming in our industry: They don’t recognize personality or warmth or gentleness.”
He says he’s sad about that but not about his lot in life, at least “not anymore.”
“Listen, in the first two weeks of this year I made more money than I ever made in my career. I just signed with the American Dairy Assn., the American Nursery Assn. and the Christmas Tree Assn.
“It was not discontent that drove me (to look for a talk show) in the first place,” he explains, “and the burning ambition to do my own show isn’t as strong as it once was. Maybe I’ve done Macy’s, maybe I’ve done enough pilots, maybe I’m older, maybe I’m happy to do ‘Today.’
“I’m doing the Virginia Special Olympics on Monday, back in the studio on Tuesday, I’ll be in Birmingham, Ala., on Wednesday, and when I finish the show on Friday at 5 minutes to 9, I’m through,” he concludes. “That’s a nice life.”