A Night of Black-Tie TV Reruns

In Hollywood, always remember that television is not the movies.

So when producer Aaron Spelling was honored by the Museum of Broadcasting Wednesday night, all his powerful television friends, some of his important television stars and certainly the agents who made it all possible turned up in black-tie--and sat and watched reruns.

Between courses of salmon and veal (no TV dinners served at the Four Seasons), the several hundred guests watched TV screens showing two collages--one charting the history of TV, from Edward R. Murrow to Kermit the Frog, the other featuring the body of work created and/or produced by Spelling, television’s most prolific producer.

Robert Batscha, president of the Museum of Broadcasting, pooh-poohed the idea that people mean it when they say, “I really don’t watch television--a little PBS.” Whenever the museum screens the collage, he said, “the people denying it most are busy identifying all the characters.”

Some well-known cultured types have no embarrassment about TV watching. “I love montages,” Dominick Dunne gleefully pronounced. (The author is off to London next week, to launch the publication there of “People Like Us,” already sold as a miniseries here.)

The crowd loved the bit from “Dynasty,” in which Blake Carrington (John Forsythe) races to the top of the stairs to strangle Alexis (Joan Collins), the frame freezing after his lines, “I’m going to kill you, Alexis.” As the crowd applauded, the charming Forsythe turned to his wife Julie and purred: “I should have killed her.”

And there were many demonstrations of “love and affection” for Spelling, including a poem written by “Charlie’s Angel” Jaclyn Smith. There was no better demonstration than that given by the presence at the dinner of Esther and Richard Shapiro, the creators of “Dynasty” and veterans of legal battles with Spelling--”But we all love Aaron,” she explained.

Spelling sat with his wife Candy (who told friends her outfit was just a “couple pieces of Jimmy Gallanos that I threw together”) and their children, Torie and Randy. Their table was heavily laden with power and priceless jewels, Candy in pearls and diamonds, Marvin Davis and his wife Barbara (in a weighty necklace of diamonds), MCA’s Lew and Edie Wasserman (who wear their power without recourse to jewelers), and Capitol City’s Tom Murphy. (One who could be seen on television Wednesday night didn’t make it to the dinner. Drexel Burnham Lambert’s Michael Milkin, named earlier in the day in a lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission, was to sit with the Spellings, as was his wife Lori, according to the guest list.)

Due to Spelling’s legendary aversion to travel or planes, even though the Museum of Broadcasting is in New York, the event was held here and was co-sponsored by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Walking around the tables was like walking down television’s memory lane, and, during the evening, Spelling’s stars and associates stood by their black-and-white decorated tables to praise him--and to do a little roasting.

Gene Barry, who starred in Spelling’s first series, “Burke’s Law,” announced that, “Aaron was a very humble fellow in those days,” remembering a visit Spelling made to Barry’s home, which he pronounced a mansion. “What you are building in Holmby Hills, that’s a mansion,” said Barry, referring to the gigantic Spelling home under construction.

Writer Harve Bennett announced that, “Aaron Spelling is the greatest stealer of material. He steals from the best. He steals from himself.”

More poignant tributes came from actress Peggy Lipton (“The Mod Squad”) and director Nancy Malone. Like Malone, Spelling began as an actor, she recalled. (Earlier guests had gotten a glimpse of him in a “Gunsmoke” episode saying he had no money to buy his buddies a drink.)

“I owe him plenty as a director,” Malone said, acknowledging the role he played in her career (he being a key promoter of behind-the-camera advancement for women and blacks). “ ‘Dynasty,’ ‘Hotel’ and ‘The Colbys’ are the big ones for me,” she said, describing Spelling as “a built-in lobbyist in this corridor of creativity . . . who even returns phone calls.”

Sammy Davis Jr. went through a funny bit about Spelling casting him as a priest in “The Pigeon,” but said that when the producer cast “another short guy” in “Fantasy Island,” he neglected to consider Davis. “He could have chosen me,” Davis said, adding that he’d have said “There’s a plane coming now. . . “ in his “Sporting Life” motif. Davis’ half-kidding complaint that he also wasn’t asked to do “The Love Boat” might be remedied next year, since Spelling’s co-producer Douglas Cramer said that a plan to bring back the series is “probably” in the works.

Spelling himself was openly touched by the evening, but kidded that the tributes forced him to “turn to Candy and ask her if I was dying.” In a landmark touch of modesty, he pointed out that the collage of his work included was incorrect in one way: “I did not create all of those shows. I produced some of those shows and I created some of them.”

He thanked his current partners--Douglas Cramer and E. Duke Vincent--as well as citing previous and successful partnerships, like those with Danny Thomas and with Leonard Goldberg. But his strongest thanks he gave his wife, Candy, who was moved to tears by his personal tribute, which began with the best words a spouse can say: “If it weren’t for her . . . “

Guests had two memories to carry home. A poster of Spelling--and one of the best one-liners ever to sum up stardom.

“Oh it’s good to see me,” Tony Curtis kidded, embracing Cramer.

And, you know what, in Hollywood, he was right.