. .		The phone rang, and it was Av Westin, inviting me to begin work developing a syndicated prime access strip for King World.  It was Av's concept, and he charged me with "enhancing it and mounting it."  With King World's clout, it was sure to get a green light, and it did.  As executive producer, I created several sales presentations (but no pilot), worked alongside Roger King and Av in selling it, hired a staff of 100, and put it on the air.  The working title was "Only Yesterday," but when it went on the air it had become "Instant Recall," hosted by John Palmer.  It was a chance to do network news quality magazine work on a daily basis.
		Click here for blow-up of above images.
		Host John Palmer on the set of Instant Recall. The garish scenic design was by Rene Lagler, under the direction of Michael King and Gregory Sills. Click here for this and more pages from the 1990 King World Annual Report.
		The concept was to marry ideas from two of Av's ABC News projects:  the "Our World" prime time series, and the the "Moment of Crisis" segments aired on "20/20."  Every day's half hour would contain two seven-minute pieces retelling a great news story from the past, using only footage shot at the time, and contemporary interviews with actual participants.  Preceding each of these segments would be a "time capsule," a quick-paced montage of what the world was like the day the event took place: pop culture, news events, etc.
		My staff consisted, in part, of 26 segment producers and 26 associate producers, many of them hired away from ABC News (the largest group from "20/20").
		Our flagship station was KABC-TV, which aired "Instant Recall" at 7:30 PM.  General Manager Terry Crofoot was a strong supporter, as were many of our GMs around the country.  "Instant Recall" had a loyal, responsive audience, and our first season average was 3.7, not bad for a new news magazine devoid of flash and trash.  We competed with Wheel, Jeopardy, ET, Current Affair, Hard Copy, and all the other syndicated giants.
		The show was great, and I don't mind saying so.  Working with Av Westin and a superb young staff, every weekday we delivered an excellent viewing experience.
		But after the February book, we learned that the Kings were selling our time periods out from under us to launch a revival of "Candid Camera," which proved to be a disaster.  To lower costs, my eight edit rooms were shipped to LA for "Candid,"  and "Instant Recall" was dropped.  Despite a recommendation from Terry Crofoot that the show be given a second year, and despite my reconstruction of my original budget to allow for an unchanged show to be produced more cheaply, and therefore to be able to air in late night, we were canceled.
		"Instant Recall" was an enormous learning experience, and a great showcase.
		For me, "Instant Recall" was a coming of age.
		My King World publicity photo.

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