The Silver Screen

The office of Law School professor Arthur Miller looks crowded and seems hectic. As he signs a stack of letters behind a desk covered with files, his secretary tells him his vest is being tailored in New York for "Good Morning, America" and that Channel 5 wants to know what his segment for their newscast that night is about. One of two nearby assistants comments that this week's episode of the nationally syndicated "Miller's Court" looks especially good. Commenting on his contributions to several television programs, Miller says "I have to avoid being captured by the medium." But the articulate and straightforward Miller places his television career into perspective. "I look at [it] as my middle-age toy," he adds.

Not far away on the same Law School campus, Professor Charles Nesson '60 sits alone in a modest office decorated in subdued colors which seem to reflect his manner both in person and on television. From this unassuming office, the soft-spoken evidence specialist has frequently made plans to host ABC's "Viewpoint," a special news broadcast that examines the media itself. He and Miller have also moderated separate CBS specials about the media and both appear in "That Delicate Balance," a 12-part public television series that analyzes the constitution.

Television not only enables these professors to extend the size of their classrooms, but also to work with people who might never turn up for a first-year lecture. And when Barbara Walters, Dan Rather, and Lauren Bacall spend time with Nesson and Miller examining issues like privacy, most likely thousands of viewers will tune in. "I've spent 15 years examining the issue of privacy." Miller says, adding "And now I have none." But Miller does not bemoan his loss of privacy, explaining that when he feels down and someone yells from a moving car, "'Hey Arthur, great show last week,' then I feel a lot better."

Their similar contributions notwithstanding, Nesson and Miller view their work in television differently. Despite offers from two networks, Nesson has decided to end his television career, and to concentrate his time on law school-related matters and legal writing. While Miller says that he frequently turns down offers from television and radio stations as well, he has no plans for stopping his TV work and still manages to appear on TV fairly regularly.

Given the Law School's reputation and its faculty's achievements, it seems natural, then, that when a business needs outside legal advice, it often calls upon Harvard professors. So when the producers of "Good Morning, America" and a local Boston newscast wanted an on-air legal expert, they asked Miller, a nationally renowned expert on civil procedure appointed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger to serve on one of the court's advisory committees. Similarly, when Fred Friendly, the former president of CBS News, needed three experts to moderate his "Media and Society" seminars and his PBS series, "That Delicate Balance," he chose two from Harvard--Nesson and Miller. According to Friendly, both men have easygoing manners that often camouflage their expertise and ability to advance arguments quickly and smoothly. "I see them both as a combination of Socrates and Phil Donahue," Friendly says, "More Socrates, I guess, but Phil's there, too."

Though both Nesson and Miller are widely regarded as excellent on TV, their mere presence raises eyebrows, with some questioning the propriety of taking the Socratic method and their expertise out of Langdell Hall and into a commercial environment peopled by Phil Donahues. Although other professors take on consulting jobs, they do so in a less public manner than either Nesson or Miller. As the latter explains, "The cross I bear is that my work is so visible." And because their work is so visible, Nesson and Miller provide an opportunity for people to examine the possible benefits and drawbacks that arise when a Harvard Law School professor deals not only with Harvard Law School students, but also with the public at large.

James Vorenberg '49, dean of the Law School, recently set guidelines seeking to create a delicate balance between a professor's academic and non-academic work. According to the guidelines, a law professor should spend no more that 20 percent of his working time on nonacademic activities. "But the guidelines are fairly indefinite." Nesson believes, adding "Does 'working time' include nights or weekends?"

Nesson recently decided on his own to end his professional relationship with Friendly as well as to refuse two attractive offers from CBS and ABC. Each network hoped Nesson would work in its news division on a more regular basis, while retaining his position at Harvard. Unlike Miller, though, Nesson thought he was being captured by the medium.

"I felt I was becoming a television person, which may be okay for some people. It got to the point where people would ask me to come do 'my act,' and I was beginning to think of it like that, too," he says. "I don't mean to knock the seminars or "That Delicate Balance," he continues. "They're the best way TV's come up with yet to explore complicated issues."

But Nesson realizes that television often doesn't afford the time needed for intellectual investigation. "I thought about the issues on the CBS program for three months beforehand," he says. The ABC and CBS offers might have lessened such preparation time to one week.

More important, though, Nesson also believes that "there comes a time when a person can cease to be a full functioning member of an institution." At that point he adds. "You have to decide if you want your institution to be a base from which to catapult yourself. That can have a dehabilitating effect on students and other professors, who might think. 'Why am I killing myself when Jones is making megabucks?'"

Miller makes no apologies for his work on television. "The law school suffers only if you believe that each and every member of the faculty should sit at a desk seven days a week," he says. "That's ridiculous. The question is whether I'd be doing "Good Morning, America" or consulting with law firms in New York. I do less outside work than many of my colleagues," he continues.

In addition, Miller has always taught a full load, and, he says, "my scholarly output is more extensive than that of several other professors here. If there's any shortfall," he adds, "it's that I'm not as involved with faculty meetings. But that has nothing to do with TV. I've been teaching for 21 years and listening to discussions about classroom evaluations gets boring. They're people who say I should be writing footnotes. Well, I've written footnotes for 20 years."

Miller insists that, all told, his work in television consumes no more than one full day a week. And he apparently finds little trouble filling the other six. He considers himself an academic first; a judicial consultant second; a writer third; and a television personality fourth. "Actually," insists Miller, "I'm less a workaholic today than I used to be."

Miller, however, takes his case beyond a justification of his right to appear on television, explaining his work in terms of duty and responsibility. "My primary motivation is that I'm an educator," he says. "If this is the greatest law school faculty, then it's the height of arrogance to say that we can only teach the fortunate few at Harvard. I hope to demystify and humanize the law for thousands who are ignorant of it. Even "The People's Court" is better than "Kojak."

Those who work with Miller on television agree. "He's as important to "Good Morning. America" as is any other single person," insists David Hartman, the show's host. "What he does is a real consumer service and allows so many to use the law in ways they never imagined possible."

"He probably helps more people on TV--he reaches hundreds of thousands here in Boston--than anywhere else," says Linda Pollack, executive producer of Boston's Channel 5 News at six, on which Miller's segments appear. According to Pollack, the newscast remains roughly tied for first with Channel 4 in the ratings. "Miller's a real asset in the race," she says.

Friendly echoes those views as well, and unlike Hartman and Pollack, he alone shares Nesson and Miller's ties to both the academic and television worlds. Now the Edward R. Murrow Professor of Journalism Emeritus at Columbia University's School of Journalism, 30 years ago Friendly teamed with Murrow to create "See It Now." Their series sought to educate the public by often devoting a single program to a complicated and important issue or personality. The show perhaps remains most famous for its revealing programs on then-Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy (R-Wisc.).

Yet Friendly deems his work with Nesson and Miller "the most important I've ever done" adding "We're trying to do what Murrow did, to get people involved in complex issues. "Friendly continues. "There's something so egocentric about people thinking. 'I'm only going to teach young lawyers about constitutional law. By the end of the year, I hope to have tapes of "That Delicate Balance" in over 1000 colleges--it'll be a theater of learning." Through that show and the special seminars. Friendly says, "Miller and Nesson have become great journalists in the best sense of the word--they have great instinct."

Where Friendly perceives Miller's "great instinct." Pollack recognizes his great "TV savvy." Don Hewitt, the Executive Producer of "60 Minutes," participated in a Miller moderated seminar. "He's a great performer," Hewitt says.

And Miller and Nesson help create interesting and exciting television. Through keen and probing questions, they quickly advance arguments and perhaps unintentionally, often make some reporters appear nervous and uncertain. "I think it's healthy for reporters to get their feet in the fire." Hewitt says Nesson remembers that just moments before "Viewpoint'"s airtime, in "Nightline'"s usual timeslot, moderator Ted Koppel told the assembled reporters. "You're about to confront the snarling tiger."

"That put everyone a bit on the defensive." Nesson recalls "People who've risen to the top aren't used to being questioned. Typically, though they do wonderfully, they didn't get to the top for nothing."

Indeed as Barbara Walters remembers, Nesson himself at one point seemed at a loss for words during the broadcast. "We had just had an exchange, and then he stood there as if he were stumped," she says, adding "So I said, 'thinking of your next question?' And he laughed, I laughed and the audience laughed." Walters continues, "Then he walked over and gave me a kiss. After the show, people asked me whether I resented that, or if I thought it was macho or if I thought he would have done that to a man. Well, I hope he wouldn't have. I thought it was charming." Walters also believes Nesson's agility and skill are far better than those of many reporters.

But Nesson decided that he was more interested in working towards a new Evidence casebook than towards good television. For his part, Miller plans to continue his television work, which always has been more extensive than Nesson's. "Miller's Court" is syndicated by Metromedia, which, Miller says, recognized that the show is "commercially viable."

He admits that occasionally the realities of television bother him. He wore contact lenses for a month to case lighting problems. "I didn't like them, and people think of academics as having glasses anyway," he says. Another time, he recalls that after the Pope was shot, the producers of "Good Morning, America" said, "'Arthur, three minutes on the legal status of the Vatican.' You know you're not going to get six minutes," he says, "so either you reconcile yourself to the fact and do three, or you don't and quit."

Several law students express admiration for both professors' work on television. First-year law student Michael Waldman watched Nesson on "That Delicate Balance." "He gathered a very distinguished panel, with people like Potter Stewart," Waldman recalls. "By doing that, Nesson's fulfilling an obligation not only to Harvard students but also to the general public."

"Nesson didn't let anyone get away with fluff," adds second-year student Stuart Rabner. "He did a very good job of explaining the law to laymen." Rabner also enjoys "Miller's Court," though he adds, "I saw it with some of Miller's students, and they were amazed at how easily he handled several people." Another second year student thinks Miller's program "lets people know what to expect in a trial situation, and that's a valuable service."

But at least one student thinks Miller's work on TV misrepresents the law. "I think it's close to disgraceful," says second-year student Ken Harmon, who nevertheless considers Miller one of the school's best professors. "It also degrades what other professors are doing." Harmon continues. "Yes, law should be popularized, but it's a matter of taste. The television medium lends itself to such great generalizations. "Miller's Court" makes law look like a Roman circus," he explains. A journalist with a legal training could do the same job as Miller, Harmon says, adding. "You don't need a law professor--he doesn't have time to show his expertise anyway."

On a more direct, personal level, Harmon believes Miller's work distances the professor from his students. "We're talking about a media superstar," he says. "He may be away no more than other professors, but it's question of impressions, and that's what's most important when you're talking about student access."

Miller responds to such criticism quickly. "It's no secret that I've always been a tough teacher for legitimate, pedagogical reasons, so there's always been apprehension about me, long before my work on TV." And he adds with a smile. "But I think I'm lightening up. Anyone who sees me in class knows I'm schizoid. Beneath the surface there's a sort of gnome--someone fairly human."

Second year law student Joi Huckaby has seen "Miller's Court," but didn't know Nesson ever had appeared on television. "He's just an approachable person," she says. "You'd never know if he'd been on TV; with Miller, you'd! now."

Whether or not he's approachable, and whether or not he ever returns to television. Nesson lectures as if he were performing. "When he lectures," Huckaby says, "someone could interrupt him, but no one does because everyone's usually so entranced by what he's saying. He's very entertaining and very theatrical," she concludes.

Miller thinks television makes him easier to approach. "TV is an extraordinarily intimate medium," he believes. "In class, I'm 50 feet away. On TV, my face fills the entire screen."

Nesson on TV:

I felt I was becoming a television person... It got to the point where people would ask me to come to do 'my act.'

Miller on TV:

I've spent 15 years examining the issue of privacy... and now I have none.