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Lorne Greene on the pitfalls of being number one
"It would be wonderful if somehow we weren't number one."
Everyone says that it's lonely at the top, and nobody knows that better than Lorne Greene. Greene spent several years at the top of the entertainment industry when he starred as Pa Cartwright on the series Bonanza. Though it was certainly not the first show in the Western genre, Bonanza made a name for itself because, at its core, it was about the importance of family.
Greene revealed during an interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that sometimes, he wished he wasn't at the top.
"Two years ago, when we were in Detroit, talking to some Chevrolet executives, I committed a rank heresy," said Greene. "I said to one of the big boys, 'It would be wonderful if somehow we weren't number one.'"
It sounds ludicrous, but Greene had his reasons. "When you're on top, there's only one way you can go - down. You can't ask for better scripts, better direction, better production, better promotion, because everyone says, 'We're number one, and that's as high as we want to go.'"
Still, Greene was aware that success wouldn't last forever. "Sooner or later Bonanza's going to get knocked off," he said. "That's the nature of the TV beast. But I honestly don't think our time has yet to come. I'll tell you why. We're no longer complacent."
Greene felt that by remaining active in the filming process, the show would continue to get better. "I'm yelling for better scripts and better directors, and we're getting them. We've already finished eight of next season's shows, and I give you my word they're better than anything we've done before."
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By one metric that is, of course, true, but since the show -- no show -- does not and cannot draw 100% of the available eyes for every telecast, there's always room for improvement in terms of raw ratings and share of the audience.
Since Greene says that everything on the show was being done as well as it possibly could have been done, there were probably no steps that cast and crew could take to increase those numbers, but NBC's Publicity and Scheduling Departments were another matter. With a little tweaking, those numbers might still have been brought up a little.
Remember, Lorne (with whom I once had lunch on the set of the original "Battlestar Galactica" in 1978), that Robert Browning wrote, "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?"