You might have liked Ike, but did you know him?
You will, in grand detail and perhaps greater appreciation, after watching “Eisenhower,” a special 2 1/2-hour presentation on “The American Experience” airing at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday on PBS-Ch. 11.
Who was this man who ended one of the most illustrious and meteoric careers in U.S.-from farm boy to war hero to two terms in the White House-as a disappointed man, ravaged by heart attacks and diminishing regard from a public that once considered him a hero?
The program, using the familiar tools of the documentary-archival film footage, photographs, excerpts from his diaries and letters, and interviews with colleagues, family members and observers-fashions a compellingly and complex portrait.
The first portion, “Soldier,” is solid and filled with details about Eisenhower’s soldiering abilities. It also puts to rest the sturdy speculation that Ike was having a fling with his driver and secretary, Kay Summersby.
“If you are having an affair you can’t hide it,” says Mickey McKeogh, Ike’s orderly during these years. “I put him to bed every night and I woke him up every morning. He was in bed by himself.”
Less dashing than such other generals as Patton or McArthur, Eisenhower was a great soldier though he was criticized loudly for his decision not to capture Berlin, which he left for the Soviets to handle.
Was he a great statesman?
Judge for yourself. The second portion of the show, which covers Eisenhower’s two terms in the White House makes solid drama: telling how the triumphs of Ike’s first term-ending the war in Korea, dealing with mad Joe McCarthy-were tarnished by missteps in his second term. It is history told in a lively and enlightening fashion.
I came away from this show feeling slightly sad that the press and public slapped Eisenhower with the mostly unfair label of a charming bumbler. He was a great deal more.
– “Unsolved Mysteries” comes to the movies with a surprisingly good-if sordid-item called “Victim of Love: The Shannon Mohr Story” (7 p.m. Tuesday, NBC-Ch. 5).
A tale first aired as part of the inexplicably popular TV series is the basis for this story of a very bad man named Dave Davis (Dwight Schultz) and the woman (Sally Murphy) he charmed, lied to and finally murdered in order to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in life insurance.
The woman’s parents, rightly smelling a rat, tried to gather enough information to get authorities to believe Davis was a killer. After seven years they had the info but Davis had fled, his whereabouts unknown. Eventually they are aided by “Unsolved Mysteries,” the TV show, and the bad guy’s now behind bars.
– Whitney Houston says: “I had a miscarriage during the filming of `The Bodyguard.’ It was very painful, emotionally and phsyically. It’s something that I would have liked to have said myself. But they didn’t give me the opportunity. I was back on the set the next day.”
Tim Allen says: “It seemed everybody was selling marijuana. It was a nasty business. It was a wonderful thing to get caught. I mean, if I hadn’t gotten caught, I probably would’ve become very good at it. If the drug conviction hadn’t happened, I would have never straightened my life around.”
Julia Roberts says: “I do like his hair. . . I think that if you spend any time with him his hair’s not as big as everybody makes it out to be. And I think that whenever people write about his hair, they always find the picture where his hair’s the biggest. I’ve seen pictures from years ago and I said, `Honey, wow, that’s high, you know.’ But it’s not, it’s pretty normal.”
Of course, it’s another “Barbara Walters Special.” It’s on at 9 p.m. Tuesday, ABC-Ch. 7.
– “The Power of Water” (10 p.m. Wednesday, PBS-Ch. 11), the first show of the 19th season of “National Geographic Television Specials,” travels from the Everglades, almost destroyed by urban spread; to midwestern plains where farmers talk of the end of their way of life; to the northwestern rivers and vanishing salmon; to Las Vegas, home to water spectacles.
We see once great, rushing rivers damned to the point of becoming tame ponds; we hear Vegas mogul Steve Wynn talk like a conservationist; we meet a group of committed kids cleaning Lake Erie. Beautifully photographed and thoughtfully produced, this is a terrific show and if its subject interests you, I would recommend taking a look at this month’s National Geographic magazine. It, too, is all about water.
