WTTW Channel 11 - "Its A Wonderful Pledge" (1987)

Here is a hilarious and creative parody piece combining the ethos of Pledge Breaks with the classic film, "It's a Wonderful Life".

Former WTTW staffer and Emmy-award-winning producer Rick Kotrba recalls, "It was originally produced in December 1986 for party festivities at the WTTW studios. I was the writer/creator. The technician who recorded the sound and edited the video was Harvey Moshman.

In March 1987, this abridged version was created for broadcast during actual Channel 11 pledge drives. And in December 1987, it was used following a broadcast of the entire movie, "It's a Wonderful Life."

My favorite line is: 'Look, Marty, they say that every time a phone rings, a station manager gets his wing!' (To help put this in context, it should be noted that WTTW was in the process of adding a new wing to its edifice at 5400 N. St. Louis at the time that this piece was created.

The graphics department provided a nice touch at the beginning, namely the bastardization of the "It's a Wonderful Life" opening titles. This was considered rather high-tech in 1986. I wanted to try to win some awards for this back then, but this was problematic...it was too short to be considered a 'program'...too long to be a "spot." But I will consider its induction into Klein's wonderful online museum to be a fine honor.

In the context of the original party tape, it was broken up into two installments. Not much was omitted for the air version...there had been a hilarious (for us) set-up including a reference to 'Moseid the Magician' sawing Channel 11 in half (in conjunction with footage of our legendary Finn actually cutting into the side of the building with a power saw)...another lost gag simply played off of the fact that we had a WTTW staffer whose first name happened to be Clarence (the veterans will remember Mr. McIntosh). Finn served as the contractor for the construction of the new wing -- perhaps knowing that adds additional resonance to the references to him that remain in the piece.

There was a 'sequel' a year later...this time using footage from 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.' Once again, it had Marty [Robinson] voicing Jimmy Stewart and turning it into pledge-related material.

I have not screened that effort in many years, but if I recall correctly, it seemed more forced and contrived, and while probably having some funny lines, didn't manage to also capture the element of warmth that makes its way into "Wonderful Pledge" by virtue of the nature of the original material that I feel couldn't help but resonate even in the parody.

'It's a Wonderful Pledge' was used on the air in 1987 and possibly again in 1988, but I don't think it turned up on air beyond then.

It had some further shelf life in-house on occasion for special presentations (e.g., excerpted when I created a tape saluting our retiring staff announcers, Marty Robinson and Don Ferris).

I also made use of it over a period of years when I would conduct seminars that found me lecturing on 'Personal Reflections on Creativity' and illustrating my remarks with video. This piece always generated a warm response even among those for whom many of the gags could not have been comprehensible.

Of course, there is nothing funnier than an inside joke. An insider like [Ray] Solley can't help but love the 'Who's gonna tell Dick Bowman? Well, it's not gonna be me!' line because he probably actually uttered words to that effect himself (or thought them at least) at some point in his career at Channel 11."

Here are the complete voice credits, in order of appearance:

Opening voice in the heavens: Lloyd Wright
Joseph: Rick Kotrba
Marty Robinson: himself
Mr. Potter (Banker): Rick Kotrba
Voices in the heavens: Harvey Moshman, then Lloyd Wright
Uncle Billy: Rick Kotrba
Voice from Truck: From original movie
Clarence: Lloyd Wright
Pledge Clips: Actual bloopers from other PBS stations
Donna Reed: Harvey Moshman
Old man with jar of money: Lloyd Wright
Old man who mentions Bruce: Marty Robinson
Man who proposes toast: Harvey Moshman
Zuzu: Rick Kotrba

This aired on local Chicago TV in 1987 and 1988.

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