CLIENT: Entertainment Tonight

CHALLENGE:
Design a structure and a look for an entertainment news magazine produced live on tape daily and create a graphical approach that had functionality as well as entertainment value.

DEFINING THE PROCESS:

Q: Everyone knows that ET has been a highly popular and long-running syndicated show. What has ET’s impact been on the overall state of television design and graphics?

John Ridgway: There has been a lasting impact on both news and entertainment shows as we know them. It’s clear that the graphical design approaches we developed for the show became widely imitated. Network and local news began to adopt those approaches. Local stations across the United States, and other shows launching at the time, and eventually, even network shows like The CBS Evening News began contacting us for consultation. Even Walter Cronkite admitted to being impressed with the graphical and visual approaches we developed for ET. My work quickly translated into a different way of defining the entertainment news.

Q: Were there other industry ramifications to that?

A: The ramifications had mostly to do with the creation of a new cross between news graphic design that had to do with functionality. It was a different type of design juxtaposition than had been done on any other show. We fused the traditional functionality of news graphics with the glamour of entertainment. The graphics had to communicate the story, but they also had to be very bright and “up”.

Also, the producers soon realized we could increase the pacing of this dramatic delivery, as well as the amount of information provided to the viewer. It had been shown this approach would work through the pacing of MTV. MTV made us realize that you could deliver a greater volume of information at a much greater pace to viewers and they could get it.

Q: So there were people involved with the show who were risk-takers?

A: There were people who were not afraid to take the risk, and they placed the challenge with the designers and the show directors. They were driven by the need to do something new and different that would work. These were the golden days of new and different in television news graphics. ET premiered as a new, faster paced, brighter news delivery format that eventually Walter Cronkite noticed and wanted to apply to CBS News.

Q: Who were some of the people who pushed the creative envelope on ET?

A: Well, on the visual side one was John Goldhammer, then the vice president of Paramount Domestic Television, who rolled up his sleeves and camped out at the show and directed it, giving the big picture direction on a daily basis. And Frank Kelly, who later took over from him and emerged as a creative visionary, keeping the show #1 for the next 15 years.
From the content perspective, James Bellows, an editorial giant in the field of newsgathering, was extremely important because he insured the there was solid content behind the cutting-edge design in the early years.

Q: What role did you personally wind up playing in this whole situation?

A: I played a key role in concert with the shows directors and producers. We came up with design directions and mechanisms which carried out the conceptual vision. Interestingly, I believe hold the only Emmy Award that carries ET’s name. That was for art direction in 1985.

Q: What were some of the initial challenges that had to be met for ET to succeed?

JR: At that time (1981), ET was an entirely new and different kind of show.The pressure was high. There were a lot of careers at stake, from the studio head at the top right down to my own. Everyone involved was looking to produce something that was unique for the sake of getting it on the air and keeping it on the air through the rough times that genuinely new concept shows typically go through.

Q: What were some of the scary early hurdles?

JR: The biggest challenge was questionable ratings in the beginning. The show had to gain its footing in terms of what it was in content, which then became its brand. We quickly learned that ET was not as much about box office grosses as it was about box office stars.

Q: So ET succeeded despite these challenges?

A: Yes, the show became a real ratings success. And our work translated into a different way of defining the entertainment news.

PROJECT IMPACT:

The new look of ET influenced an entire news and magazine television show genre. It was a much quicker paced , information paced delivery system than had every been on the air. It was soon adopted and copied by local and network news organizations, as well as a number of other entertainment and information shows such as The Today Show, Dateline, and even The Academy Awards.

TAKEAWAY:

“ “What we brought to the table was a delivery system to make this show and others more watch able and, ultimately, more competitive. The 1980s marked a true revolution in television because of the proliferation of stations and shows. We were handed the challenge of how to keep a viewing audience engaged. We created a more attractive design that moved a lot faster and delivered much more information coherently.
“The content is still number one. And as long as you focus on dealing with the client’s needs and maintain your core principles, you will produce a quality solution with sustainability.”