Counterattack

As TV critic-gossipist in Hearst's New York Journal-American and 250 other U.S. papers, pudgy Jack O'Brian, 43, writes a daily column that is lively, readable, and regularly a thorn in all sides of the TV industry. Last week, violating one of show business' most sacred taboos, NBC's Comedian Steve Allen took a deep breath and told Critic O'Brian off. He filled six columns of Manhattan's Greenwich Village weekly Village Voice in lambasting O'Brian as "the only TV critic in the nation who is rude, inaccurate, unchristian and vengeful."

Charged Allen: "He has abused his position and power and assumed the role of the neighborhood bully. By far the greater number of TV people openly disapprove of O'Brian's professional methods. He is derelict in his duty to his readers, unethical in his methods, and beneath the respect of the industry because his column is frequently an outlet for his personal emotional delinquencies and vindictive displays of pique."

Among those on Allen's list of O'Brian's pet hates: Arthur Godfrey ("O'Brian will drag Godfrey's name into print for no other reason than to express contempt"), Allen's own rival Sunday-night Host Ed Sullivan ("His hatred of Sullivan is so pronounced that he cannot even bring himself to refer to his hour as a 'program' "), Comedian Jackie Gleason ("Initially, O'Brian praised Gleason. Eventually, he attacked him, at last so rudely that the two almost came to blows one night in a restaurant").

What good did Allen think his blast would do? Wrote he: "Performers who are relatively inexperienced will be cheered by the knowledge that O'Brian's destructive criticisms are in most instances unworthy of respect. To be criticized by O'Brian may well be an indication that you have talent. Perhaps this blunt presentation of the case for the entertainer will, after his initial shock and anger, lead O'Brian to consider mending his ways."

Columnist O'Brian did not see it that way. "Remember, all this doesn't make me angry." he told an interviewer, "even though it's an attack. I think the whole thing is unhealthy. It's sick, that's what it is. Allen gets criticism and turns on the critic. You know what this all means, don't you? It means 'Jack O'Brian doesn't like my show.' " Would Critic O'Brian reply to Critic Allen in his daily column? Said he staunchly: "I'm not even going to mention it."

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