TV legend dons fishnet stockings

Fishnet stockings, 6-inch platform high heels, pale blue eye shadow and buttless suit pants. These are a few new tools of the trade for retired WCCO-TV anchorman Don Shelby as he plays "The Narrator" in "Rocky Horror Show LIVE!" which ends its run at Lab Theater on Halloween. Today's video shows Shelby during our Q&A. On Monday a startribune.com/video of him putting on his stage makeup will be posted.

Q How much acting goes into being a television news anchor?

A Not enough. Dave Moore, who was my mentor, was an anchor primarily. In fact, he and James Arness and his brother Peter Graves all graduated from Washburn High School [and] went out to Hollywood to be actors. Arness stopped at "Gunsmoke" and Graves "Mission: Impossible," among other [credits]. Dave didn't, and he came back and he acted at "The Old Log." Then he landed this job after [Walter] Cronkite turned it down. Dave always believed that being an actor was essential to being a great communicator. There are days when you worry about your children at home, times when you've got the flu and you're sick. You've got money problems. But you can't allow that to interfere with the ability to communicate. You have to become that communicator. That same person every night, no matter how you are feeling. Dave was such a fabulous oral interpreter that he would have to write his mistakes into the script in order for him to seem human. Being a reader is not being an interpreter of the material.

Q Some think your second act, your post-television career, will be on the stage?

A I wanted to be an actor when I was a kid. I studied [theater] three and a half years at the University of Cincinnati before I quit. My dad talked me out of it, and I ended up going into journalism. I've always wanted to act. I still mess around, memorize plays even though I'm never in them, and soliloquies, just for practice. I don't have an extreme attraction to being a performer on the stage. I wouldn't mind doing a movie. [Movie writer and producer] Pat Proft used to talk about doing movies from time to time.

Q Experience any stage fright?

A Yeah. Only at the beginning. In the same way that I did when I played basketball. You're nervous in the locker room.

A Yes. She knew. She has never been my biggest fan. She has been my reality check. I used to not want to come home some nights because I knew the truth lived there.

Q There's a picture of you in Lavender magazine that shows your hand on Craig Daniel Stastny's behind. Among your former colleagues in the WCCO-TV newsroom, the buzz is that you look like you're enjoying yourself too much.

A What's enjoying yourself too much? I didn't know that was possible. Am I comfortable putting my hand on a man's butt? Yes. Now, there's an explanation for that. Am I gay, bisexual, transexual, an alien? These are questions that I think best, in the words of the play, not left to the academic but should be left for the heart to solve. [Laughter.] My hand has been on more men's butts than most gay men because I played 28 years of basketball. When you play basketball and there is a good play, you're smacking a guy in the ass.

Q Do you feel like Prince when you are walking around on stage in the buttless breeches?

A I have felt like almost everything at one time or another in my life. Never in my life have I ever felt like Prince.

A Yes. Venetian art. I am completely an idiot.

Q I asked a Strib colleague to help with questions for you and he said he couldn't because he just doesn't understand why you're a "legend in this market." I told that to a broadcasting source who informed me that your belief in your legendary status is the reason you're a legend.

A I've sold myself as a "legend"? Now that gets a little bit under my skin. [That person doesn't know the history of journalism] in the state of Minnesota. There are 27 state laws on the books as a result of the I-Team's work. We put 14 people in jail. We got one person out of a life prison term. I was the first person in the world to report on Romanian orphans. I was standing at the Alfred Murrah Federal Building [in Oklahoma City] hours after its explosion. I was on the shores of Valdez, Alaska, after the Exxon Valdez oil spill and stayed there for two weeks. I was the first person to make as a matter of public interest energy and the environment as episodic reporting.

I don't want to brag in that way. I don't like the word "legend" because that suggests there was only me. I get upset people don't know what the I-Team was. Forget me: Count Al Austin, Larry Schmidt, John Lansing and Mike Sullivan, who is now at "Frontline." There is only one Emmy given out to a local station each year for public service reporting. In 12 years, WCCO-TV was among the five nominees 10 times, of all the stations in the country. We won it five times.