Cerebral Palsy Telethon Delayed, but Show Goes On

When bombs began dropping on Baghdad, sponsors of the 13th annual United Cerebral Palsy national telethon were thrown into a quandary: How do you operate a live, 21-hour broadcast when much of your 80-station network may feel compelled to run breaking news stories instead?

The nonprofit charity agency decided that the show must go on--and be taped for probable later broadcast on 55 stations, including KCAL-TV (Channel 9) in Los Angeles, that decided to stick with war coverage over the weekend.

“We only get one chance a year in January to come to the public to ask for support of our disabled people,” said Jerry Ball, United Cerebral Palsy Assns. telethon director. “So we’re making arrangements to rebroadcast the telethon.”

When the Burbank-produced show--televised live in 25 cities including New York and Chicago--signed off the air Sunday night, host John Ritter was gazing at a tote board showing $22.8 million in nationwide contributions. About half the total was from pre-telethon pledges by corporate sponsors and individuals, Ball said.

Although the amount falls within the ballpark of last year’s nationwide tally of $24 million, the figure is deceiving, according to Ronald Cohen, executive director of United Cerebral Palsy of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties.

He said that “it is essential” that “Star-athon ‘91” be aired in Los Angeles because telethon funds received by the local chapter are largely dependent on local telethon contributions.

“I feel like a casualty of war,” said Cohen. “There is a war going on and our prayers and thoughts are with the soldiers in the Persian Gulf. But cerebral palsy continues here in Southern California and the people we take care of continue to need our programs.”

Last year, Cohen said, the Los Angeles chapter raised $700,000--4.5% of its annual budget--during the national telethon. The chapter is due to receive about $300,000 this year from pre-telethon pledges by corporate sponsors, he said.

A KCAL-TV spokesman said that the station plans to air the show in March. Arrangements must be negotiated, Cohen said.

In playing to half-empty airwaves, producers of the weekend broadcast were faced with such logistic problems as what celebrities, including Florence Henderson, Henry Winkler and New Kids on the Block, should say or not say about the war.

“We did not do an antiseptic telethon--everyone was sensitive to the times and we did not ignore those feelings,” said Ball. “There were general mentions of our troops in the Middle East. But there was nothing there that would become dated--we didn’t talk about Scuds hitting Israel.”