Well, I knew from the very beginning of the Don Meier, it had a lot of experience. And Chicago used to be the center of television, the central focus. And Don Meier was the producer that started Dave Galloway off. They used to be in Chicago. Hugh Downs, Don Meier… Read More
In those days on film it was so overpowering to watch the action. You didn’t wanna be talking abstractly about something on your narration that didn’t have anything to do with what you’re seeing. That’s one of the first rules, even when you’re lecturing, you gotta talk about what people… Read More
And Don Meier would build visually up to a point of action just before you went to a commercial. So you would build the action with the narration and then you’d go to commercial and you’d do another segment. And Don was very tuned in to all that. And he… Read More
He would sometimes go on location, but and it’s interesting now that we’re talking about it, that Don Meier didn’t necessarily give rules and regulations, but he was very quick to spot what made good television?… Read More
Did he say, this is what I want you to do, this is what you’re gonna expect. No. (laughs) He never discussed any roles. I think what they did… I think he was happy that I was a zoologist. I wasn’t just the front man, see. I got involved in… Read More
And I had to sort of play a role as a backup person with Marlin, which was fine with me, but I was more or less focusing on the fact that I was a zoologist and he was a scientist too. He was a herpetologist. I think that was one… Read More
What was your role with the producer Don Meier?… Read More
(laughs) But Marlin… Let me say this about Marlin. This is very, very true about him. I never heard on any of those trips. I never heard Marlin Perkins complain about anything. He wasn’t the kind of guy that complained about any conditions. Yeah. Read More
Did he discuss your role on the show when you first did it?… Read More
It used to be Rhodesia. We had a camp and we had been catching giraffes. And so I had to be in a Land Rover and you take a noose on an end of a stick at you, it used to be about a half grown grown giraffe. And we… Read More
It’s quite an evening. And a group of elephants were trumpeting coming into our camp. Well, I had to make the decision. I always like to get out of my tent so I can see what’s going on. Marlin and Don Meier has still stayed in their tents with all… Read More
Well, guess what?… Read More
It turned out that a group of lions had come in, to try to kill the giraffe. And the elephants were chasing the lions right to our camp. (laughs) So you get to know somebody pretty well when something like this is going on. I was standing outside of the… Read More
Why did you consider that you want to– Marlin was one of the people that might be called one of the original type zoo directors. And I don’t wanna say old type zoo directors, but Marlin was very dedicated. He was a very… Not only was he dedicated, but I… Read More
I think Marlin was very good. He had suffered, I think a little bit by being too identifiable to the public. He was very recognizable and been a household name. And when that happens, you see some things happening. Of course, nowadays with some of the Hollywood stars it’s pretty… Read More
But Marlin was very good at that. And he… Personally, he worked very closely with people. He was good with people. But let me give you a compliment about Marlin. I was around the world with Marlin and some very adverse situation. I mean, things like elephants chasing us in… Read More
As a person who knows the value to human beings of these forests as they stand, how do you compete with something about that?… Read More
Or how can you have an effect on it?… Read More
It’s really frightening. But that’s a whole nother subject, but anyway at least they’re working on it. And also the nature conservancy and others have worked in Guyana trying to save these, put these big forest into national parks. The trouble is (chuckles) not to get into politics, but the… Read More
What was your impression of Marlin?… Read More