At 77, ‘Path to War’ Producer Is Still Driven to Tell Stories

Edgar Scherick spent 10 years trying to bring the Vietnam-era story “Path to War” to the screen, at one point waiting for Barry Levinson to decide if he wanted to direct the film before John Frankenheimer agreed to come on board and delivered the project from limbo.

Not that he’s complaining.

“A good script is like a bottle of wine. It gets better with age,” the producer said.

At 77, Scherick would be the first to admit he knows a little something about aging. Yet despite suffering a stroke five years ago that left him in a wheelchair, he continues to actively pitch and produce projects. Already in the works is a movie for Showtime, “Panic in the White House,” documenting the reaction in Washington to the events of Sept. 11.

Scherick’s storied career includes establishing the “Wide World of Sports” franchise at ABC and later heading programming for that network. As a producer, his credits range from the features “Sleuth,” “Shoot the Moon” and “The Heartbreak Kid” to TV movies such as “Raid on Entebbe”--still a favorite production 25 years later, though the mere mention of it raises his blood pressure because ABC rushed a competing version, “Victory at Entebbe,” on first.

Even in the face of well-documented charges of ageism that, as Scherick points out, have left the Hollywood Hills brimming with veteran writing talent that has no place to go, the producer said he has never considered retiring.

“It’s the impetus of my life,” he said. “I’ve done it so long, I don’t know what else to do.”

Moreover, for all the hand-wringing about the state of made-for-TV movies with the major networks having dramatically cut back in that area, Scherick still finds himself fascinated by history and driven to tell stories. The economics of the business are a mess, he conceded, but “if a guy wants to pay me to get something I like made, you don’t have to open up the Bank of England.”

Scherick says he adheres to the same principles that guided him in less frenetic times, such as the 1980s, when he could drop by then-NBC Entertainment President Brandon Tartikoff’s office unannounced just to chat. “All I wanted,” he said, “was to have the respect of the people I work with and like the material I’m dealing with.”