Sporting News Q and A with Ken Howard

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Q&A with the star of 'The White Shadow'
by Sean Deveney

November 21, 2005

The way I see it, there hasn't been much worth watching on TV since they took "Sledge Hammer!" off the air way back in the '80s. Great show, starring David Rasche, an actor so adept at deadpan humor, he could read Dr. Suess at a funeral and most would think it was a beautiful eulogy. I later saw him in such classics as, "Hard Time: Hostage Hotel," "Big Tease," and "Nurses," all of which I tuned in because I was single at the time, and the titles seemed to be something very different than what the movie/show turned out to be. Ah, well.

Anyway, other than "Seinfeld," "The Simpsons" and the History Channel (I loved, "Hitler's boxer briefs -- A timeline," by the way) television has been a vast wasteland for me over the last two decades or so. Just about the only haven were 54 television episodes that combined the thrill of sports programming mixed with the heavy-handed preaching of afterschool specials -- yes, the show they called "The White Shadow."

What follows is an interview I did last Thursday with the star of "The White Shadow" himself, Ken Howard. He's gone on to do a number of things on the stage, and is now in, "Crossing Jordan," but he's always Ken Reeves -- the Shadow -- to me. It was a thrill to chat with him, because I am a fan, and my fantasy basketball team is even called Pettrino's Salami.

You can read all of this in the ensuing text, but I have to tell you, I was shocked to learn they only did three seasons of the show, because it seems like the thing was on forever. I was also surprised by how much of the show came from Howard's own life -- he was actually nicknamed "White Shadow" as a player in high school. I was also happy to learn that some of the ridiculousness of the last season of White Shadow (the "jumping the shark era" to television aficionados), when all the ridiculous guest appearances started popping up, was dictated by the studio, not by Ken Howard and Bruce Paltrow (yes, Gwyneth's father), the two driving forces behind the show.

If you're a "Shadow" fan, pour out a shot for Bruce, by the way, who passed on back in 2002 after a bout with cancer.

OK, here goes with me and Ken:

Me: Seems like there are a lot of people who were very affected by "The White Shadow". And I was shocked when I saw that it only was on for three seasons. Why do you think the show had such a big impact in such a short run?

KH: Really, it was less than three years, because we came in for a half-season, then there was the actors' strike, so we only made 54 episodes. But, it was in syndication for a long time, for a decade, and over that time, it built a broad audience. I think the reason it endures is because it wasn't really like other shows. It was a homemade idea, it did not come through traditional television channels. I went to Bruce Paltrow with the idea, we went to CBS, and they bought it. So there was a uniqueness that still resonates today. The shorts were a lot shorter, of course, but the themes and the humor resonates.

Me: You were a pretty good high school ball player, and you played in college at Amherst. How did your career as a player inform the show?

KH: I played at Manhasset High on Long Island, for a wonderful coach named Fritz Mueller. My nickname, then, was White Shadow. My senior year, I was the only white guy in the starting five. Our colors were orange and blue, like Carver High. There were two guys, who were brothers, named Thorpe and a guy named Jackson, who were my teammates. There were guys named Thorpe and Jackson on the show. And, as Ken Reeves, I dressed a lot like Fritz Mueller did.

Me: You acted like a coach, too.

KH: I met Dave DeBusschere a while back, and he told me about watching a scene where I was holding a ball and tossed it to one of the players, and DeBusschere turned to his wife and said, "Hey, that guy is a player." I think if you've played the game, you can recognize others who have played, too.

Me: Did that happen to you much? Do players and coaches recognize you?

KH: It happens all the time, at events or charity golf outings. Coaches, especially, are so sweet. Coach K, Bobby Cremins, Tommy Heinsohn, they all call me "Coach." So, it's, "Hey, Coach, come here and meet this guy or that guy." I have somehow become welcome in that world.

Me: You've talked about Ken Reeves as sort of an ideal. In fact, you once said, "The Shadow is so terrific that sometimes he makes me sick." What'd you mean by that?

KH: Well, I didn't want him to be ideal. He wound up being that, but that was never how he was supposed to be. He was a journeyman NBA player before the knee injury, and he was supposed to be flawed. He wasn't supposed to be perfect. I think those people make the best coaches, the imperfect ones. It's like Jerry West used to say, about having trouble coaching because he was such a perfectionist as a player, and such a great player, that it is hard for him to be a coach -- you can't understand why your players can't just do what you did. So, the Shadow was supposed to be flawed. It made him a better teacher. He was not supposed to be a great white knight, which, at the end of the show, he seemed to become.

Me: Yeah, that changed as the show went on.

KH: By the third season, the network was making a lot of demands, they wanted a more traditional, upbeat sort of show. Bruce had fought the good fight for the first two years, but by the third year, he said, "Ken, we're going to have to give in to their demands." So, the next thing you know, Ella Fitzgerald is visiting our school. And Sparky Anderson, and the Harlem Globetrotters come by. We played a team from Russia. Things like that.

Me: You actually have a dog named Shadow.

KH: I do, Shadow the Wonder Dog. He's a pit bull, and he's really, really sweet.

Me: So, I have to know, could Coolidge really dunk?

KH: Oh, yeah. He was 6-8 and a half. They had to lower the basket for me to dunk, but the actor who played Coolidge, Byron Stewart, he could dunk with no problem. He was a pretty good player.

Me: My favorite Ken Reeves line: "Let's move it, ladies!" Coaches can't say that anymore, I think.

KH: No, that is an old-school thing, very New York. Someone might get offended now.

Me: Why is it that Carver never played any road games?

KH: No, no, there were some. One of my favorite scenes was at a high school in Pasadena, where the camera is panning across their side of the bleachers, and everyone is white and blonde, and their cheerleaders are doing these really tame, standard sorts of cheers. Then, the camera keeps going and you hear this heavy-beat, bumpity-bumpity cheering, then you see the Carver cheerleaders, and their side of the stands, and it is all black, and there is a whole other rhythm going on. It was a great scene. But, you are right, we played an inordinate number of home games.

Me: What would Ken Reeves do with some of the more self-centered NBA guys? What would Ken Reeves do with, say, Kobe Bryant?

KH: Kobe is so great on his own, his ability to beat other players himself. But I don't think you're going to win a lot with that kind of play out of your guard. You're not making the defense move, you're not making them work. Too much one-on-one, that's the problem with the NBA now. But, it's a different world. In the NBA, the difference is money and power. Ken Reeves could sit a guy down, or kick him off the team until he gets it together. You can't do that in the NBA.

[Jrnygrl]

Thanks for the great post!