Deconstructing Byron, Vol. 15
Martha Takes TV
By Andrew Ritchie
Chapter 14 of Martha Inc. is unusual in Chris Byron’s gossipy opus in the sense that it is actually fun to read. One wonders if he wrote this chapter (Martha Takes TV) while he was still fantasizing about the fabulous view of Martha’s behind at his local gym, when the possibility of being one of her close friends was still intriguing to him, before the bitterness set in.
It is probably the most "pro-Martha" chapter in the entire book, with Byron calling Martha "brilliant" and "a genius" on several occasions. He seems to regard her with a copious amount of admiration in this chapter – even awe.
Byron, the Martha Worshiper
This chapter, as the title indicates, is devoted to Martha’s forays into television. In 1991 she took the idea for a show to Group W Inc., formerly a part of Westinghouse Corporation, which sold television programming to TV stations around the country. Martha first took her idea to Time Warner, which handled her magazine, but they were not interested. Despite the massive success of both the first and second test issues of Martha Stewart Living magazine the men at the top still regarded Martha as a nuisance.
It was a Group W executive named Richard Sheingold who met with Martha about the idea for a television show, and he was initially very skeptical about the idea of a home and garden show that revolved around the lifestyle of its host. When he said that getting a show off the ground meant losing money, Martha said she didn’t care about that, reiterating that she was confident it would fly and that she had good contacts in the advertising business thanks to her magazine and her relationship with Kmart.
Sheingold, who was extremely competitive, relished the thought of being able to stick it to a company as powerful as Time Warner by essentially luring away its top star, and it was only a few days after first meeting with Martha that he understood her plan. As Byron excitedly describes it, he was blown away by the genius of it. Byron writes:
"It was brilliant; in fact, it was a stroke of genius. And from the moment [Richard Sheingold] realized what she had in mind, that is exactly how he began to think of her as well – as Martha Stewart the genius. It was so simple, and so obvious … and so smart. She intended to syndicate a half-hour commercial disguised as an actual program, and she was going to cut its cost of production by sticking commercials from her own advertisers right in the show. It was awesome! A commercial inside a commercial. It was even better than that because the infomercial would be promoting Martha who would be cross-promoting the magazine that would be carrying the ads of the companies that would be advertising the show! An arrangement like that could spiral right into outer space. It blew Richard away."
Byron, obviously on his knees and praying to his Martha shrine, seems to come out of the closet as a Martha fan at this point. He binges on his total admiration for Martha, which he had been previously trying to mask with nasty name calling and shrewd gossip. But there is no fighting it anymore – her success and business sense amazes him and he has no choice in this chapter but to recognize that. He even points out how the men at Time had lost sight of the "good thing" they had in Martha Stewart.
"Chicking" Martha
In his dealings with Martha, Richard Sheingold realized very quickly how the men at Time viewed Martha Stewart. He observed first hand how they treated her when he’d meet with Martha and the Time brass to discuss the television show. They viewed her as a "chick" and treated her like one.
In interviews with Byron, Sheingold describes how the men would discuss Martha as if she was not even in the room, patronizing her to her face and belittling her behind her back.
With Martha standing right next to them they would say things like, "We think Martha is really doing well," or "Martha has been down this road before," speaking about her in the third person as if she wasn’t even there. They may as well have patted her on the bottom, given her a doggy bone and sent her on her way. Martha had become so tired and fed up with this treatment that she knew very early on that she wanted to buy back her magazine from Time Inc. so that she would no longer have to put up with such a humiliating environment.
Sheingold vowed never to treat Martha like a "chick" and treated her, instead, like an incredibly intelligent, business-savvy person who was going to make him, and his company, a lot of money.
Ironically, Byron "chicks" Martha throughout his bio and it seems as if Sheingold’s warnings to him about not "chicking" her were basically lost on him. Whether its his incessant name-calling or his ludicrous theory that Martha’s success today rests on some girlie dream about the things she never had growing up, he "chicks" her again and again, never fully aware of how patronizing and chauvinistic he sounds.
One has to wonder if Bryon would describe Martha "clawing her way to the top" if she had been a man. Martha herself has said that she doesn’t like to think of herself as a "woman" in business but rather a "person" in business, indicating she rightfully expects to be treated with an equal measure of respect a man would get from his business peers.
Sheingold got that from the start.
He and Martha got along because there was a working balance of respect and understanding in their business dealings. As Byron describes it, Sheingold was comfortable with "the Martha Stewart who said, ‘Okay, never mind about the food, let’s just talk business.’" And it was a relationship that would make Martha rich enough to not only buy back her magazine from Time Inc., but also launch her own company.
Channel Surfing
By 1995, 97 percent of the American population could tune into Martha Stewart Living on television, with 182 stations carrying the show in 185 markets. It was being aired in Canada as well. Martha was now a multi-millionaire and an internationally recognized star. Group W had also made a fortune and her magazine was one of the top-selling publications in the country, with over two million subscriptions.
In 1996 her show was the most popular women’s television program in the country and it garnered award after award, including several Daytime Emmy Awards for best lifestyle program and best TV host.
But it didn’t always look so promising. The first pilot episode made Richard Sheingold very nervous. He thought it would be a total flop. The segments of the show moved at a snail’s pace with images of Martha wandering through her garden giving well-articulated tips about roses and soil matter. Then it was into her kitchen to bake a cake, into her bedroom for instructions on how to dress the "perfect" bed, how to fold laundry, how to set the "ideal" dinner table. He was bored stiff and thought everyone else would be too.
But at the 1993 National Association of Television Programming Executives (NATPE) where Martha was stationed as Group W’s main star attraction, Sheingold was astounded by the enormous groups of women who had flocked around the Martha booth to shake her hand, have their picture taken with her, watch the pilot episode of the show – the women were riveted to the television set and comprised the largest audience in the whole convention centre. Sheingold could not believe it and he was thrilled!
He wondered aloud about how this show would appeal to people living in Detroit: "Martha, I mean, look," he said, "the people in the cities where we have to sell this show are in urban environments. They’re working class people. These people don’t have gardens."
Martha calmly sipped her wine, turned to him and reassuringly noted, "No. But they want them."
Martha knew all along that she had a "good thing" in mind. It was Sheingold’s gain while the men at Time could only scratch their heads in wonder, losing millions of dollars in the process.
Also, visit The Pantry each month for a closer look at the cover subject of Martha Stewart Living Magazine with insightful articles that broaden the scope of the cover topic, written by Andrew Ritchie
