cover image Aaron Spelling: A Prime-Time Life

Aaron Spelling: A Prime-Time Life

Aaron Spelling. St. Martin's Press, $23.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-312-14268-1

For a man who's tapped into the world's TV-viewing habits like no one else, mega-producer Spelling comes across as a surprisingly ordinary fellow in his autobiography. He makes producing ""a smash hit a decade""--The Mod Squad, Dynasty and Melrose Place among them--look like happy and very lucrative accidents. The son of poor Eastern European Jews who settled in Dallas, Spelling grew up spinning yarns to fight redneck taunts, honing story skills that eventually led him through the early days of TV production and, in time, to realize his own Fantasy Island (another Spelling production) lifestyle. He portrays himself here with down-home graciousness--even if he jokes that he can't find his bedroom in his palatial mansion. He respectfully spares us the TV-star gossip and gives close friends and family members, like his loving wife, Candy, paragraphs for their own celebrity roast anecdotes. Such passages come off as padding, however, as do the lengthy excerpts from produced scripts Spelling wrote early in his career. If Spelling's writing works on the tube, it doesn't fly on the printed page. This tame memoir offers little in the way of character shading or social insight. The author answers critics who called Charlie's Angels ""jiggle"" with: ""Haven't reporters ever been to the beach before?"" Spelling has enjoyed a prime-time life, but his memoir is anything but. Photos not seen by PW. (Aug.)