Dual Role

The TV industry looked ahead with mutterings and misgivings last week to one of the fall season's new castings: John Crosby in the dual role of TV critic for the New York Herald Tribune (plus 92 other papers) and a well-paid CBS performer, presiding over the network's ambitious, hour-long Sunday afternoon show, The Seven Lively Arts.

How can a critic write evenhanded reviews when he works for one of the major networks? "I struggled with my conscience for 48 hours before giving my decision," says Crosby. "I am going to continue my column just as before, and CBS is fully aware that they will still get scathing criticism from me. In fact, I am afraid I will lean over backward and belt the hell out of CBS--that is the real problem." He expects no gripes from other networks. CBS TV Program Director Hubbell Robinson thinks that Crosby "is a man of sufficient integrity to handle both jobs very well." The Herald Tribune, which Crosby did not consult about the new job ("There was no reason to," he says), is also unperturbed. "It goes without saying," says Executive Editor George Cornish, "that he won't review his own show."

But the other networks, and even some executives at CBS itself, were not reacting as Crosby hoped. Said one official: "A terrible mistake. This is the kind of thing that makes criticism suspect. Any time he pans a show on NBC or ABC, somebody is sure to say: 'What do you expect, he's on the CBS payroll.' And bending over backward isn't a proper posture for a critic either."

There were a few other troublesome implications. How will Crosby's paper get critical coverage of Omnibus and Wide Wide World, which NBC will alternate weekly at a time overlapping Performer Crosby's appearances for CBS? "That hadn't occurred to me," says Crosby. "I'd hate to miss Omnibus, but maybe I could see it once a month when Ed Murrow will have our time on CBS." How will Crosby's readers get critical coverage of Seven Lively Arts, one of the new season's major shows? Well, Crosby thinks he may get somebody like the Herald Tribune's Drama Critic Walter Kerr to review it for him. One added complication: Critic Kerr works on the side for the competing Omnibus as dramatic consultant and sometime performer.

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