Cleveland; High Concept

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CLEVELAND (continued)

     I went through August-September 1978.  This is from the CLEVELAND PLAIN
DEALER, 19 August 1978, pg. 22A, col. 5 (letters):

     As an ex-Clevelander who left the city known nationally as the "Mistake
by the Lake," I say the failure to recall Dennis Kucinich only serves to
reaffirm the wisdom of my decision to seek residence elsewhere.

    This will have to wait until I go to the Library of Congress or to
Cleveland to check out other newspapers (but that won't be soon).
    A new book is CLEVELAND BROWNS: THE OFFICIAL ILLUSTRATED HISTORY (1999)
by the Sporting News, "Commemorating the rebirth of a proud tradition."  Pg.
12: "That family passion was stoked by seven AAFC and NFC championships in
the franchise's first 10 years and increased with every passing season,
carrying the city through the dark times of burning rivers, 'Mistake by the
Lake' jokes and financial devastation to a metropolitan revival..."  Also, on
pg. 41: "A year later (1946?--ed.), (Paul) Brown would add Horace Gillam, a
black punter who put the phrase 'hang time' into pro football vocabulary."

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HIGH CONCEPT

    Someone called me about "high concept."  It appears he already spoke with
Allan Metcalf, Jesse Sheidlower, and someone from Merriam Webster.
    A book published in 1998 about the film producer Don Simpson was titled
HIGH CONCEPT: DON SIMPSON AND THE HOLLYWOOD CULTURE OF EXCESS, by Charles
Fleming.  Simpson produced FLASHDANCE (released in 1983 and written by Joe
"Showgirls" Ezterhaus), TOP GUN, and BEVERLY HILLS COP.
    The first hit on Dow Jones & Lexis/Nexis is the New York Times, April 28,
1983, and it mentions tv shows (A-TEAM), but later hits mention "high
concept" as a one-sentence plot description for Hollywood films.
    THE A-TEAM was created by then-NBC honcho Brandon Tartikoff.  He should
have known the term, and his (incorrect?) definition is interesting.  This is
from the late Brandon Tartikoff's 1992 book, THE LAST GREAT RIDE:

Pg. 20(?)  You've heard of "high concept."  (Any show whose premise I had to
explain more than once to the NBC sales department.)  _The Cosby Show_,
however, was still in its low-concept phase.
Pg. 46  "flyover people"...people who live between New York and L. A.  (Not
in the RHHDAS--ed.)
Pg. 172  (Paul--ed.) Klein was already a legend in the business and at NBC.
He was the man who invented the term "jiggle show" in the _Charlie's Angels_
era; "Mr. High Concept," he called himself.  (The RHHDAS has "jiggle show"
from 1978, but with no mention of Paul Klein--ed.)

    Ah!
    We will have to ask Paul Klein if "Mr. High Concept" coined "high
concept."  There are a lot of Paul Kleins--I couldn't find him easily on the
web.  Unfortunately, the "high concept" he had pitched that Tartikoff
described was tv's megaflop, SUPERTRAIN.
    If this is the coinage, then "high concept" really is connected to "high
art" and "high brow."  It's a joke meaning just the opposite!