A FAREWELL TO RICK LUDWIN ONE OF THE TRUE TV PROFESSIONALS

Let me start with a story which I’m sure has had many iterations over the years so here it goes:

Back in the early 80’s a bunch of NBC suits including Irwin Segelstein and Ray Timothy were in Irwin’s office at 30 Rock for a meeting when Segelstein’s assistant came barging in with a note. Irwin read it, turned ashen and told the room “Bob Hope is dead”.

In the 70’s and 80’s Bob Hope was the motherlode of ratings and advertising revenue with his NBC specials. Back in the day those Bob Hope Specials were really special and were always among the highest rated shows of the TV season. I remember as a kid watching the annual visit to the troops with Joey Heatherton, Lola Falana and, just to keep my hormones in check, Jerry Colonna.

This was devastating for the NBC executives until Segelstein looked at the note again which actually said “The Pope is dead”. A sigh of relief swept through the room.

Rick Ludwin would appreciate that story, I actually think he was the first to share it with me. Rick passed today.

He was the head of Specials and Late Night during my tenure at NBC….oh and SEINFELD.

Rick was the consummate professional and it was an honor to share a suite with him and his staff Betty, Todd, Christy and Lisa. My good friend Vince Manze who was the head of marketing and promotion at the Peacock was also part of the suite. Vince and I were the rowdy east coasters while Rick was the button-downed clean cut “kid” from Cleveland who would often come out of his office to tell Vince and me to tone it down.

I started with the Bob Hope story since Rick was the executive in charge of the Hope specials. Those specials meant everything to him and he would often visit the Hopes in their home which was not far from the Burbank offices.

In addition to overseeing the many NBC specials Rick had the responsibility for late night and devoted himself fully to The Tonight Show, Late Night and Saturday Night Live. Rick lived his job. I remember one Saturday early evening  when some emergency was going down (these were 24/7 jobs back then) and I needed to reach Rick. I had no idea what his home number was and I remember telling my wife “ I bet I know where he is”. I called his office around 6 on a Saturday night and he answered. He wondered how I knew he would be there and I said “Rick, SNL is original tonight. You’re not in New York so I assumed that you were at the office watching the dress feed.” That was Rick.

Right before I came out to Burbank from New York Johnny Carson announced at the upfront presentation that he was leaving The Tonight Show the following May. Because I shared the suite with Rick I witnessed first-hand the emotional and physical toll the Leno/Letterman battle took on him. He always handled it professionally but it was brutal. After I left he had to do it all over again with the Conan/Leno situation. I think that was what finally ended his outstanding career at NBC.

….and then there was SEINFELD. So much has been written about how Rick took money out of his specials budget to fund the Seinfeld pilot. I was fortunate enough to be in the pilot screening room when Rick, as only he could, sheepishly explained the pilot’s origins and never oversold it. Trust me I have seen development execs oversell pilots in that room. For me and others the heavens opened as we screened what was going to be one of the foundations of the “Must-See-TV” era.

To Jerry and Larry David’s credit they asked my boss Warren Littlefield not to give the show over to a current executive and allow Rick and his team play that role which they did for the life of the show.

I remember a retreat where we had a discussion of the role of Current Executives and Don Ohlmeyer asked Rick to describe how he handles SEINFELD. With classic mid-west demeanor Rick said “ I show up, shake everyone’s hand and laugh a lot during the table read and then I leave.” Classic Rick.

When it was time for SENIFELD to move on we were in the scheduling room. Rick was there and we were putting up the first post-SEINFELD schedule. I remember, like it was yesterday, Warren taking the magnetic SEINFELD tile off the board and respectfully handing it to Rick.

Towards the end of my time at NBC “reality TV” was becoming red hot thanks in no small part to my future partner in crime Mike Darnell who was over at FOX. Don Ohlmeyer wanted us to get in the game and, to Rick’s credit, he sort of refused to go there which afforded me the opportunity to oversee a few of our more dubious programs like “I-Witness Video”. Rick never complained that we were going there. He had enough on his plate.

When I got the text this morning from Vince that Rick had died I was deeply shaken and that has been the feeling among several of us who were fortunate to have had Rick as part of the MSTV team.

I wish peace to his soul and send love to his family and friends.

A real professional who contributed so much to the history of TV. Love to you Rick.