Son’s Advice Was a Key for Ohlmeyer

Don Ohlmeyer was leading the good life. He had retired in his 50s, leaving behind a legacy in both sports and entertainment television. He lived in a Beverly Hills mansion, had more money than he needed and played golf almost daily at Bel-Air Country Club.

Then in March he decided to go back to work.

So there he was on Sunday in St. Louis, eating a cold room-service cheeseburger, complaining about the poor reception on the hotel television, worrying about all the details that a producer of “Monday Night Football” has to worry about.

Why did he come back? Did he really need all this aggravation?

He pointed at Kemper, his 16-year-old son who had accompanied him on the trip to St. Louis.

“I told Kemper after I retired that I might still want to take on a five- to six-month movie project, if it was a script I really liked,” Ohlmeyer said.

“When this opportunity came up, Kemper said, ‘Dad, what’s the difference between this and a five- or six-month movie project?’ He was right.”

And, you might say, Ohlmeyer liked this script.

“I wouldn’t have taken the job if it wasn’t ‘Monday Night Football’ and it wasn’t Howard Katz,” he said.

Katz, the president of ABC Sports, and Ohlmeyer are longtime best friends and colleagues. They worked together at ABC in the ‘70s, during Ohlmeyer’s first stint as the producer of “Monday Night Football,” and Ohlmeyer later made Katz president of Ohlmeyer Communications. It was Katz who talked Ohlmeyer into returning to ABC.

As for Ohlmeyer’s coming back after this season, he said, “I don’t know. We’ll see.”

Don’t bet on it.

ANOTHER SIDE

Ohlmeyer’s reputation is of a gruff, hard-driving, hard-talking, chain-smoking TV executive who isn’t hesitant to bat off a nasty memo if he sees something he doesn’t like. But there is another side to Ohlmeyer that comes out whenever he’s around Kemper.

That’s when he becomes a softy. The affection between the two is obvious, and Wilson Pollock, Kemper’s best friend at Harvard-Westlake High in Studio City, is among those who say it is always there.

Kemper, as a sophomore, went out for the junior varsity football team. He had never played football but soon became the starting quarterback. His father attended every game, often watching from under the bleachers while he smoked.

WHAT ABOUT DENNIS?

Ohlmeyer has made a lot of changes in “Monday Night Football,” but the big one was in June with the hiring of comedian Dennis Miller. That created not only a buzz but a roar. Miller has gotten almost as much media coverage as the presidential campaign.

“We didn’t expect a ‘so what?’ reaction, but we didn’t expect as much coverage as what we got,” Ohlmeyer said.

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, at a pregame party in St. Louis Monday, said he’s glad to see people talking about “Monday Night Football” again.

“Ohlmeyer came to our owners’ meetings at the end of May and told us some of the things he was planning to do,” Tagliabue said. “And we liked them. I think Don is tremendous.”

Dennis Lewin, the NFL’s senior vice president in charge of broadcasting, also said he likes what Ohlmeyer has done.

That doesn’t come as a surprise. Lewin and Ohlmeyer worked together for 10 years at ABC, and Lewin was the producer of “Monday Night Football” before and after Ohlmeyer.

MICHAELS’ VIEWPOINT

It has been written that there is not enough room in one booth for the egos of Al Michaels and Miller, and that Michaels isn’t pleased.

“I just don’t get it,” Michaels said during an interview Sunday in St. Louis. “I like Dennis. I want this to work.

“People who have never talked to me or Dennis are making wild assumptions.

“And what’s this about me having a big ego? I don’t think anyone who knows me would say I have an ego. Perfectionist, yes, I’m guilty. But ego? I don’t think so.”

Michaels believes the hiring of Miller could prove revolutionary and trend-setting, although there might not be many Dennis Millers out there in the entertainment world.

“What you need is someone who has a facile mind, is hysterically funny, brilliant, loves sports, understands the art of communication, is contractually free and wants to do this,” he said. “Who besides Dennis Miller fits that bill?”

That should tell you something about Michaels’ opinion of Miller.

SHORT WAVES

The Tiger Woods influence got ESPN to make some last-minute changes in its coverage of the Bell Canadian Open. A 3 1/2-hour morning block was added to Thursday’s coverage on ESPN, and for today, a five-hour block, 5 to 8 a.m., has been added to ESPN2 to supplement the 1-3 p.m. block on ESPN. Woods tees off at 4:57 a.m. PDT. On Saturday, ESPN will televise the third round live, 1-3 p.m., and will show the Senior Comfort Classic, delayed, at 3 p.m.

Oops Department: When the Todd Martin-Carlos Moya U.S. Open tennis match Tuesday night ran late, CBS picked up the live coverage from USA at 12:37 p.m. EDT for its late-night highlights show. One problem. DirecTV uses an East Coast USA feed nationwide, and in the West it was 9:37 p.m. When USA cut away here, DirecTV viewers were left with no coverage at all. . . . Inside tip: Notre Dame is a 13 1/2-point underdog against No. 1 Nebraska Saturday, but there could be an upset. Last week CNN-SI’s Trev Alberts said UCLA was in for a humiliating loss to Alabama. This week he says, “Nebraska wins this one easily by 14 points.”

IN CLOSING

Miller generally got good reviews for his regular-season debut Monday, but the gist of most reviews was that Miller didn’t get in the way of a good game. With Miller, it’s more what he doesn’t say than what he does say. Look for Michaels and Dan Fouts to be a two-man team next season.

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What Los Angeles Is Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for Sept. 2-3:

SATURDAY

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Over-the-air Channel Rating Share College football: Alabama at UCLA 7 5.7 15 College football: Texas A&M; at Notre Dame 4 2.8 8 Tennis: U.S. Open 2 2.6 8 Basketball: U.S. women vs. Brazil 4 2.3 6 Baseball: Angels at Chicago White Sox 9 2.2 5 Basketball: U.S. men vs. U.S. Select Team 4 2.0 5 Baseball: Chicago Cubs at San Francisco 11 0.8 2

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Cable Network Rating Share Boxing: Kevin Kelley vs. Erik Morales HBO 2.7 5 Tennis: U.S. Open USA 1.5 3 Baseball: Philadelphia at Dodgers FSN2 1.2 2 College football: Stanford at Washington State FSN 1.1 2 College football: Arizona at Utah ESPN2 0.8 1 College football: Toledo at Penn State ESPN2 0.5 2 College football: Colorado at Colorado State ESPN2 0.5 1 Golf: PGA Air Canada Championship ESPN 0.5 1 College football: Boston College at West Virginia ESPN 0.4 1 Golf: LPGA State Farm Rail Classic ESPN2 0.2 0

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SUNDAY

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Over-the-air Channel Rating Share Pro football: San Diego at Oakland 2 10.7 26 Pro football: Chicago at Minnesota 11 7.3 18 Pro football: Indianapolis at Kansas City 2 5.4 13 Soccer: Mexico vs. Panama 52 3.8 10 Soccer: World Cup qualifying: U.S.-Guatemala 7 3.3 8 Auto racing: CART Molson Indy Vancouver 7 1.0 2

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Cable Network Rating Share Pro football: Tennessee at Buffalo ESPN 6.2 13 Golf: PGA Air Canada Championship ESPN 1.2 3 Baseball: Philadelphia at Dodgers FSN2 1.1 2 Tennis: U.S. Open USA 1.0 2 Drag racing: NHRA Big Bud Shootout TNN 0.8 2 Auto racing: Winston Cup Pepsi Southern 500 ESPN 0.7 2 Golf: LPGA State Farm Rail Classic ESPN2 0.6 2

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WEEKDAY RATINGS: MONDAY: Football, Denver-St. Louis, Ch. 7, 17.9/30.

Note: Each rating point represents 51,350 L.A. households. Cable ratings reflect the entire market, even though cable is in only 63% of L.A. households.