Stunt Climber Aimed High in His Bid for Fame

“The thing that attracted people to George the most is that he didn’t have any message to give.” So says the mother of George Willig, who in 1977 became the first person to climb one of New York’s World Trade Center towers.

Perhaps appropriately, a similar lack of message will be what attracts or repels viewers watching “Fame for 15,” the fast-food documentary that recaps Willig’s life.

The episode on Willig and fellow skyscraper daredevil Dan Goodwin debuts tonight (8, TNN) as part of a 15-hour marathon of the series, which applies the style of “Biography” and “Behind the Music” to those whom fame only sideswiped. Willig and Goodwin draw Princess Diana-like attention, with interviews, family photos and the always-feeble slow-motion dramatization.

Repeat episodes featured in the marathon, which begins at 9 a.m., focus on such momentary celebrities as John Wayne Bobbitt, Darva Conger, “Mayflower Madam” Sydney Biddle Barrows and George Holliday, the man who videotaped the brutal arrest of Rodney G. King.

For all the time it devotes to Willig and Goodwin, “Fame for 15” overreaches in attempting to glean insight from them. For example, the program offers this reflection from Willig on his decision to climb: “I didn’t do it as a publicity stunt, although I guess in some ways I did.”

Additionally, although Willig built an undeniably unique bond with the Twin Towers, his reactions during a post-Sept. 11 visit to the site are sufficiently banal that the decision to bother airing them seems exploitative of the tragedy.

Trivia and nostalgia buffs figure to be the core audience of “Fame for 15,” so executive producer Gay Rosenthal might do better to keep things tailored for them. Long after Willig’s walk through the attack site is forgotten, true fans of “Fame for 15” will revel in knowing that the first man to scale the World Trade Center later dated former “Dallas” star Morgan Brittany.