Shining TIme Ringo

 

Former Beatle Ringo Starr Worth Half-Time Interview

By Rick Kogan

The Register

January 29, 1989

(Chicago)

    The two football-minded friends with whom you are listening to pre-game TV prattle have a hard time understanding why you would leave in the middle of the NFC Championship game between the Bears and the 49er's to interview somebody, anybody, until you tell them it's Ringo.  They nod understandingly and say, "Oh, wow."

     The reaction of the next person, a young lady sitting behind a desk at the Park Hyatt Hotel, is somewhat less restrained. "The Ringo? Oh, my God, is he here?"

     Ringo Starr --need we pause for the curriculum vitae --is sitting on a couch in a suite upstairs. The television set is on to the game, and a number of people smiling, minions of the sort that attend this sort of press excursion, are milling about on one side of the room, throwing, glances toward the couch where Ringo is talking. "What really got me interested was the magic of it. Only people with good hearts could see me."

     Ringo, bearded and affable, does not seem fully at ease, and neither do those around him. That is because he represents a rather large target, and one can imagine that he is poised for some nasty questions, variations of which were indeed asked at the next day's press conference. 

Why are you appearing in a kids' show ----for the money?

What about your recent problems with drugs and alcohol?

    Though there are some purists who might wish Ringo were leading, at best, some rarefied life in music, or at worst, not doing children's shows on TV, understand that the Beatles' burden is theirs and not his. He has no responsibility to lead the sort of life they want him to lead. Let him be.

     So you tell him that you left your tabloid sensibilities at home and ask, first, how are you feeling? "Great. Really great," he says.  "Don't I look it?" Yes, he does. And you tell him. 

    So then you ask, and you can see relief come to his face, why he has decided to play the 18-inch-tall Mr. Conductor on Shining Time Station, a new weekly children's TV series on PBS. "It's primarily because of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends," Ringo says.  He's referring to the award-winning animated series that has been a smash for four years on British television, and which Ringo narrates

     "It's now the most popular show on British TV that really wiped me out initially, I wasn't sure about it. I thought all the kids would be into Star Wars."

    Shining Time Station, which also includes Thomas the Tank Engine stories, is produced by WNET in New York and Quality Family Entertainment. Set in an enchanted train station, its cast includes DiDi Conn as Stacy Jones, the station manager. Leonard Jackson as Harry, the semi-retired railroad engineer. Brian O'Connor as Schemer, a rogue who owns the station's arcade machines. Jason Woliner as Matt, the station manager's seven-year-old nephew, and Nicole Leach is Tanya, the engineer's eight-year-old granddaughter.  The series chronicles their adventures as they work to keep the station open and prospering. Abating the fun is a group of musical puppets who live in the station's jukebox and Ringo. His role is that of a railroad man with magical powers who lives in a tiny, single house and who, with the blow of his whistle and a puff of steam, takes us from Shining Time Station into the world of Thomas and Friends a gang of animated steam engines on the imaginary island of Sauder. 

    "My part is to talk with the kids, not at them," Ringo says. "I love the Thomas stories based on the classic children's Tales by Rev W. Aldry. He's cheeky, has a mind of his own, and he's, I think, very appealing to all ages. That is one of the principal reasons I jumped on board." 

     At this point in the conversation, an attractive blonde woman sits down in a chair next to Ringo. Her name is Britt Allcroft, and she is one of the co-creators and producers of Shining Time Station..  
The role of Mr. Conductor is very important," she says.  "He must have all the qualities that Ringo has, charm, humor...."  "and good looks," Ringo adds all smiles. She continues, "Of course.  And he must have whimsy, warmth, vulnerability, and a certain degree of shyness."

    " And all this time", Ringo says, "I thought I was Arnold Schwarzenegger."

    " Actually, the reason I got involved with the show, beyond the stories, is that Britt is very dedicated to the show and careful about every aspect of it." Ringo lights another Camel and lets his eyes drift to the waning minutes of the 49ers' victory. "You look at TV and what do you see for kids?" Ringo says, "Mostly cartoons, very little else."

     "What we perceived was that there was a lot that was purely entertainment, and on the other side, a lot that was strictly educational," Allcroft says. "We want something in the middle." Ringo says,  "It makes children use their imaginations. That's why I enjoy it and the music and the stories."

 The following morning, Ringo and the 19-person crowd that was traveling with him were to board a train for New York, where a press conference and photo opportunity were to take place in Grand Central Terminal. 

    Does he like trains? "I love trains, but I think that more than 70% of our audience have never even been on a train,"  Ringo says. Ringo lights another Camel. Alcroft sips a glass of water.

 Ringo tells a story, an almost unbelievable story, about a reporter who recently asked him, "Could you tell me what you did before Shining Time Station? Can you imagine? "Oh, I was in a band called The Beatles"

    . But Ringo smiles, "That's one of the beauties of this project. There's no baggage," He says, There's an entire generation of children in Britain who know me only as the voice of Thomas, and perhaps they'll be another generation of American kids who will only know me as Mr. Conductor, you say the Beatles to them and they simply haven't got a clue.