They have grabbed folks off the streets of Fells Point at dawn, bribed them with free breakfast and put them on the air live — hoping they could sing. They have sweet-talked crew members of the NBC series "Homicide: Life on the Street" into leaving their early-morning network shoot to come over and do a little karaoke at the last minute. And they have gone live with a family of ducks squatting in the middle of their "set" refusing to move.
Just another and another and another Manic Monday — the results of an off-the-wall idea sounded 13 years ago in the WJZ newsroom that is now must-be-there TV for thousands of Baltimore residents despite the early hour.
As WJZ reporter Ron Matz, host of the station's so-you-think-you-can-sing segment, remembers it, management was looking for a new spot to brighten its morning newscast when co-host Marty Bass said, "Ron, let's do karaoke in Fells Point live in front of Jimmy's Restaurant at 6 o'clock Monday mornings."
To which Matz replied: "What, are you nuts?"
But today, 13 years later, the segment that features area residents showing up in front of Jimmy's at dawn to sing along with a boom-box-powered version of the Bangles' "Manic Monday" is rolling along stronger than ever. Hundreds of amateur groups apply each year, and the music videos of their performances at wjz.com and YouTube are a virtual "Who's Who" of Baltimore schools, charities, clubs, professional organizations, and doctors' and lawyers' offices.
"We think what makes Manic Monday so successful is its simplicity and its purity," says Gail Bending, the station's long-time news director. "It really is an opportunity for the people who watch us to put themselves on TV. And you can't get any more local than that."
As everyone in the television industry rushes to find the new-media holy grail of content that is both hyper-local and interactive, Manic Monday has been delivering that very one-two punch for years. And it's been doing so with one of the oldest formulas in local TV: putting audience members in front of the camera and somehow turning it into entertainment that others will watch.
"Ron has a very personal dialogue going now with thousands of people who want to be on this segment — they e-mail him, they write to him, they call him," Bending says. "It's taken on a life of its own. It's just pure interaction that breaks down the walls between a television station and the people who watch it. We are the same, because they're a part of the show."
There might be thousands trying to get on now, but it wasn't always that way. In the early days, Matz says, they didn't book ahead. He had to scramble to find people on the streets of Fells Point at 6 a.m. who were willing to stand in front of a live camera and sing along to a perky song on a boom box.
He once had to go with a couple of local crew workers from the NBC series, "Homicide: Life on the Streets" who were waiting to go to work on a street scene shoot. They weren't the actors, who would have been a catch. And they couldn't sing, which would have been nice. But they were sober. Good enough.
"One morning I asked this guy to sing and it was obvious from the get-go he wasn't too interested, but he finally agreed after we offered him a free breakfast at Jimmy's," Matz recalls. "When he got on the air, though, he was just awful. He actually recited the words instead of singing — our first and only spoken word Manic Monday! Maybe he did it in honor of William Shatner."
Then, there was the morning when a family of ducks showed up just before 6 a.m. and refused to leave the area where the segment is usually staged.
"We had a big group of singers that morning, and what could we do?" Matz says. "We just did the performance around the mother and her ducklings."
A live segment with a family of ducks in the middle of it was still better than the morning when no one showed up, according to Bending.
"The 'low moment' [over the 13 years] was when the Manic Monday group didn't show, so Ron, Don [Scott] & Marty sang the song," Bending says. "Let's just say they were not invited back for the Mammoth Manic Monday Meltdown — and it was NOT one of the most-watched videos."
Not that excellence in performance is necessarily a guarantee of heavy online viewing. In fact, the most-viewed "Manic Monday" video features a performer known to Manic Monday viewers as Dale from Canton, and I challenge you to find one note he sings in the video that is on key. I'll take a pass on describing the choreography.
"I think Dale's performance was so unusual that everyone in Baltimore told their friends about it," says Matz diplomatically. "Before we knew it, it went viral, quickly becoming the most-watched 'Manic Monday' video." It was viewed 18,763 times in 2009.
A number of the performances these days are impressive in their own right. Members of the Baltimore City Cancer Project showcased tight choreography and pink boxing gloves in their performance, which they dedicated to "knocking out" cancer. New Town High School, in Owings Mills, sent along a corps of marching band drummers that drove the singers so hard they didn't need the Bangles on the boom box.
Both were winners in the Mammoth Manic Monday Meltdown, a competition held every November featuring the best performers of the year. According to Matz, 31,000 viewers voted online at wjz.com during finals week last November for their favorite Meltdown performance. The annual winner gets the "Valentino" Award, an acrylic trophy named after the lyrics in "Manic Monday" that refer to "kissing Valentino." The station, which shares content with The Sun, also gives out "Spirit" Awards to those Manic Monday performers who demonstrate the most enthusiasm and effort.
"In a world where people say news can be tough, because there's a lot going on in this world that isn't always positive, Manic Monday is something that is always positive," Bending says. "It will always make you smile. Part of the reason it's on Mondays is sometimes you just need something extra to get you going on a good foot on Mondays. We all need a little extra lift to start the week sometimes."
But who would have guessed live karaoke on TV from Fells Point at 6 a.m. was the formula to provide it?