On Air with Tom Chapin

"The World, and All That Is In It"

When I was an un-sullied lad, running business affairs for National Geographic TV, I had an assignment to set up our new production office at 1630 Broadway in Times Square.  I hopped many Eastern Shuttles, learned to eat sushi that winter, and scouted the grimy pre-Giuliani splendor of the 'hood.

We had launched National Geographic EXPLORER on Nickelodeon in 1985, then moved it to WTBS before a year was out.  At that juncture, we dropped hired-gun spokesmodel David Greenan and chose personable, charismatic Tom Chapin to host the 8-10pm Sunday night magazine-format show.  Tom would eventually be succeeded by Robert Urich, and later Bob Ballard.

Tom Chapin of Nat Geo Explorer

I got to meet Tom several times in the studio between 1986-1988, and he's a great guy.  Make a Wish!

You will be relieved to learn that letters written to National Geographic Society during the roaring '80's always received close and respectful attention, and wide circulation among the department heads.  Once early in Tom's tenure, for fun, I wrote a letter - in the voice of an earnest but cranky and befuddled National Geographic member - to Society President Gil Grosvenor complaining that "your immoral Tom Chapin" had been drunk on the air.

"My wife and I are Tee-Totalers!" I wrote.  "Disgraceful - by the end of the show, he Had The Glass Right There On The Desk Next To Him!  Never will we watch your degrading 'television show' ever again!"  I used a friend's home address in Hollywood, and posted the letter from L.A. while on a business trip.  Sure enough, a week later that letter came in the front door of the TV Division with stern instructions from the President that we review every minute of that program and "Get me an answer!"  We cleared it, and we told Gil "it must have been some crackpot...."

Clean-living Tom Chapin, deservedly, sailed through unblemished.

 * * * * *

Tom and Harry (whose hunger I satisfied) were brotherly collaborators.  From Circle newsletter:

Like most of Harry's songs, “Circle,” the one that became known as the “Chapin national anthem,” has a story behind it. When Tom Chapin was hired to host the weekly ABC Television children’s show "Make a Wish" in the Summer of 1971, the show consisted of two word topics in each episode like "fire" and "wind." They were looking for a songwriter to write a song for each word, helping to bring each word to life in a way that would be meaningful and appealing to kids.

Tom immediately recommended Harry for the job and the producers agreed. This was the year when Harry had gotten back into music and had created his first band with John Wallace, Ron Palmer, and Tim Scott. He was opening for his brothers’ band, "The Chapins," with Steve and Tom Chapin, and Phil Forbes and Doug Walker, who later became Harry's lead guitarist, every weekend at a club in Greenwich Village called The Village Gate. So writing songs for "Make A Wish," although very lucrative for him, was far down in the list of Harry's commitments.

One week the word was circle, and Harry still had not written the song—the night before the episode’s taping. "After the gigs at the Gate, we usually met, ate, and rehashed the evening at Maria's Diner in Brooklyn Heights," said Tom. "It was late Sunday night, and we were going to be shooting the episode for "Circle" early on Monday morning, and he promised me he'd have it done. So at 6:00 a.m. Harry called me and played the first verse and chorus over the phone while I took down words and scratched out the tune." Hours later Tom performed "Circle" for the first time on camera, walking around the Cinderella fountain in New York City's Central Park.

For a while it was only the first verse and chorus that existed. "Then our mother told Harry it was great song, and he ought to write some other verses. He did--and it became a signature Chapin song. All these years later, we still sing the song at concerts, weddings, funerals, and people all over the world love and sing that song."