Getting Tips From Tapes

By Richard Zoglin

William F. Buckley Jr., seated in a leather easy chair and wielding a ball- point pen for emphasis, holds forth on an unlikely subject for a conservative guru: the techniques of celestial navigation. The Fonz (Henry Winkler) steps off his motorcycle for some straight talk to children about sexual abuse. "Somebody touching your private parts," he urges, "is a secret you don't keep!" Esther Williams, the aquatic screen star from the 1940s and '50s, dives back into the pool to show parents how to teach their infants to swim.

Scenes from an obscure cable channel? Or maybe from a new afternoon talk show, Unsolicited Advice from the Rich and Famous? No, these stars are among the first participants in a TV genre still in its infancy: the instructional videocassette. As VCR machines have proliferated, so have how-to cassettes made expressly for the home market. A large chunk of them are exercise and fitness tapes, led by the best-selling Jane Fonda's Workout (which has sold 750,000 worldwide since its 1982 release). But hundreds of other how-to tapes are on the market, covering everything from auto repairs to making love. By plunking a cassette into their home machines, VCR owners can get beauty tips or financial advice, take a course in Spanish or lessons in bridge, learn how to split the fairway with the help of Jack Nicklaus, or how to split from a spouse with the aid of Divorce Attorney Marvin Mitchelson.

The first generation of how-to tapes has not exactly advanced the video art form. Some use a celebrity host to liven up a dry presentation; more often an anonymous lecturer is aided only by crude graphics or amateurish dramatizations. Attempts to make the material more "visual" are frequently awkward. First Aid: The Video Kit, produced by the American Red Cross and CBS/ Fox Video, buries its valuable information amid hokey sketches in which two couples are instructed in proper first-aid techniques by a helpful neighbor.

Still, a surprising number of subjects lend themselves well to video teaching. An amateur chef watching a cooking tape--like Wok Before You Run, with Chinese Chef Stephen Yan as host--can see, and not just read, what his concoction is supposed to look like. The World's Greatest Photography Course, presented by Photographer Lief Ericksenn, uses lucid narration and lots of visual examples to demonstrate, not just how to pick a proper f-stop or choose a lens, but subtler matters such as how to recognize a good picture and how to compose one. How to Watch Pro Football, produced by the National Football League, uses illuminating stop-action photography and expert commentary from N.F.L. coaches, including Tom Landry and Don Shula, to explain basic concepts that are rarely covered by Sunday-afternoon color commentators. One of the most ambitious cassettes is Strong Kids, Safe Kids, in which Host Winkler guides parents and children through a discussion of sexual abuse. If the tone seems somewhat alarmist, the mix of interviews, songs and animated segments brings the message home with sensitivity and skill.

The success of Fonda's workout tape--along with sequels like her Prime Time Workout and Workout Challenge--has inspired a horde of other celebrities to try getting Americans in shape via video. In Debbie Reynolds' Do It Debbie's Way, an exercise class sprinkled with familiar faces (Florence Henderson, Teri Garr, Shelley Winters) bends and stretches to big-band music while Debbie cracks jokes and offers encouragement. Considerably more demanding is Raquel Welch's Total Beauty and Fitness. The 44-year-old star folds her body into positions that will leave most of her viewers in awe. The macho Armed Forces Workout has unexpected touches of humor: a tough drill sergeant barks commands to the accompaniment, at one point, of Culture Club's Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?

Some of the newer workout tapes seem interested less in fitness than in showing off their star's physical endowments. Sandahl Bergman's Body, billed as a "video workout combining fitness with the art of dance," is long on arty camera angles and short on guidance. And in the Solid Gold 5 Day Workout, dancers cavort in a series of seemingly random maneuvers that are nearly impossible to follow.

Although a number of workout tapes are selling well, few of the more specialized how-to cassettes have found a large audience. Some industry executives blame video stores, which concentrate on renting movies and other entertainment cassettes and are little disposed to stock or promote instructional tapes (which typically sell for $30 to $60). As a result, some companies are starting to market their how-to cassettes in retail outlets geared to specific audiences: placing tapes on home repair in hardware stores, for example.

Despite the slow start, industry executives predict that how-to tapes will eventually catch on. "If you look at a bookstore," says Stuart Karl, president of Karl Home Video, producer of the Jane Fonda Workout, "best sellers make up 10% of the merchandise, and the rest is alternative programming--books on cooking, travel, self-help. The future of home video is the creation and translation of all these books to video." Observes Austin Furst, president of Vestron Video: "It's going to be a good business someday, but built brick by brick." All the industry needs now is a cassette to explain how to stack them all up.

With reporting by Peter Ainslie/New York