Remember Petey Green?

There's a movie coming out about the man. I remember he was the only one I ever heard back then cuss up a storm on television. I don't think the ones who monitored that sort of thing could understand what he was saying behind his thick dialect. I used to tune in though, just to hear him cuss and fuss. It was incredible to hear his political rants, surviving for so long in the uptight media wasteland we had in those days.


I'd usually stay up for Tammy Faye and Jim Baker right afterward for a few laughs.

Nice to see he's getting the tribute of this movie account of his life. Looking forward to it.


Martin Sheen Discusses 'Talk to Me'


Playing the Guy Who Runs the Station: Sheen shared his take on his character’s decision to hire Petey Green, a star on the airwaves in the 1960s. “Well, it was a black station. It played Motown music. It was obviously geared towards the vast majority of the population of Washington, D.C. which is black, and the inner city. So he knew that he had better appeal to the community if he wanted to stay on the air. So bringing in Petey Green was a business decision and a risky one.

You have to remember that the ratings. They were trying desperately in any number of ways to improve the ratings and it just went further and further down.

People were not listening. So when Petey Green arrived at the station, it was a big risk because he was so open and just so vulnerable and publicly unchanged from any private behavior, including his language. It was a risk. At the same time, it was a business venture. It was not an accident that he chose him. He was feathering his own nest, and that's cool. They became very close. In the end, he had an opportunity to sell the station to a white consortium for more money but he realized he owed a debt of gratitude to the black community and he wanted that station to remain in black hands, so he sold it to a black consortium who still owns it.”

Truth vs Fiction: Although some characters in the movie were composites of real people, Sheen was playing a real man. “Sonderling is a real guy, he's dead now, God rest him, but he was a good and decent man. He had a lot of heart and he had pretty good taste in radio. He was in on what has to be considered the invention of talk radio. He was ‘Petey Green, talk to me.’ He was the guy. But he was talking to a specific community, one that didn't condemn him for his addictions or his felonies or for being blunt in his language or assessment in the culture, of the society. He said it like it was, man, and this is at a very critical time in our country.

Remember, I knew this time. I lived in the East Coast from 1959 to 1969. I don't remember Peter Green specifically, but I remember the time and place and the turmoil the country was involved in in tandem with the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement. They were inextricably connected. It was about where our priorities were going to land in the heavens. It was about human rights, human dignity or force of will. It was a great conflict and a wonderful time to be alive. Very tragic time as well because we lost two of our heroes in Reverend King and less than 60 days later, Bobby Kennedy, and the country never recovered. We lost an opportunity with Robert Kennedy and we ended up with Richard Nixon and it's gone downhill ever since.

Looking Into the Future: Asked if he believes there might be a resurgence of the Petey Green type of social activism in the next 10 years, Sheen replied, “Yes, I think the American people are just on this one issue of Iraq, have woken up to this administration, that this administration lied and cheated and they all belong in a federal penitentiary for their actions. He used the military to further a political agenda. That's the bottom line. Finally, the military is waking up to this. It's very hard to find anyone in the top brass that wants to risk their reputation by throwing in with this crowd. It's a hopeless situation because it was born in arrogance. Arrogance is ignorance matured. I didn't make the rules. I observed the results and that's what we're dealing with here . . .


more: http://movies.about.com/od/talktome/a/talkmems070507.htm

really, no one?

I used to watch his show every Saturday. The show was great. I will see this movie.
" I tell it to the hot, I tell it to the cold
I tell it to the young, I tell it to the old
Don't want no lyin'
Don't want no cryin'
Most of all, no signifyin'"----- Petey Greene's weekly signoff