Ted Koppelhead Strikes Again
Someone sent me this link a while back to an episode of a VH1 show called ‘True Spin’ that I appeared in. I’d almost forgotten about it. It may well be the biggest waste of space ever to appear on television, but it’s fun to look back on. It was an interesting experience.
This was actually back before The Grand Delusion was published, so imagine my surprise when I got an email one day from a producer from VH1. She was producing a show called ‘True Spin’, and they were doing a segment about the Styx song “Mr. Roboto”. Their research department must have really been on the ball, because they found their way to me even though my book was not out yet. Of course, this was an opportunity for me - and more importantly, the title of my forthcoming book - to reach a national audience targeted to Styx fans, so I jumped at the chance.
I’d done some local TV before, playing in bands and such, but nothing terribly professional and certainly nothing for a major network, so it was an interesting insight into the production process. The very brief appearance that I make in this clip is the product of a crew of three people spending almost three hours at my house one morning. We had a camera and lighting guy, a sound guy, and a lady who was interviewing me from off camera. There were two light rigs set up in my dining room and one in my kitchen to light me obliquely from behind. They shot at a fairly weird angle across my dining room going into the living room so they could get the fireplace in the background, which looks great in the scene, but wasn’t terribly practical from a logistical standpoint.
One thing I didn’t expect is that VH1 had a script for this thing, so instead of extemporaneously answering the questions the way I would answer them in an interview, I was asked the same series of questions as everyone else who appeared in this show, and we all read the pre-conceived answers from cards VH1 provided. Then they simply edited together the show they wanted from the various takes. Basically the premise of this thing was, they asked each guest a series of questions about a supposed “myth” about the song “Mr. Roboto”, and then at the end Dennis DeYoung came on and gave the “true spin”, as it were. It’s an idiotic premise for a show, and the entire thing was manufactured from start to finish, but hey, they spelled my name and the title of my book correctly, so I was happy with that.
One thing they had us all “answer” was a supposed myth that the line “secret secret, I’ve got a secret” was about Dennis being gay and in the closet. I wasn’t very comfortable with that, because although they swore up and down they wouldn’t use that, they had me sign my release form before we shot, before I knew I was going to be reading from cards, so there wasn’t anything I could have done to stop them from using whatever they chose. I read the little boilerplate they had, but I tried to ruin any hope of them using it by quickly adding that the member of Styx who had been in the closet for most of his career was Chuck, not Dennis. Of course they could have simply edited that out, but thankfully they were true to their word and did not use that particular footage. I still wonder why they bothered to shoot it; somewhere in an archive VH1 still has the footage of all of us reading that blurb, so it’s not impossible that some time in the future, if Styx’ career should take another upturn that would warrant it, VH1 might produce another show about the band and pull that out and use it. I hope not! I’m sure the DeYoung camp would not be thrilled with that, and rightfully so.
I don’t really get my picture taken much, and I don’t own a video recorder, and when this thing aired it kinda freaked me out to see myself. I’ve always had an unusually large head, and when I was a little kid my brother and sister used to tease me by calling me “Ted Koppelhead” because my freakishly large noggin looked so big on my tiny little shoulders. It’s more in scale now as an adult, but I still have a lingering sensitivity about that, and when I first saw this clip I thought my head looked like a float at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I thought, ‘Gosh, it’s a good thing I’m a writer, that way nobody has to see me!’ Looking at it again, I don’t see it anymore. Strange how an old insecurity like that can come and go.
At the time this was shot VH1 was also planning a ‘True Spin’ episode about “Come Sail Away”, and in fact I believe they went ahead and got Dennis on film talking about it while they were at his house for this. I was slated to appear in that as well, but before that could happen VH1 canceled this series. I have to say, they made the right call in this instance. As bad as some of the “reality” programming is on VH1, this show surely ranked among the worst ever to grace the airwaves.
