Commentary: Television classics played a role inspiring Obama, Clinton

June 05, 2008 The unlikely but now quite possibly inexorable road to the White House for Barack Obama may have actually begun in "Room 222"; for Hilary Clinton, who has given the Illinois senator a run for his money for the Democratic nomination for president, the bumpy road may have started shortly thereafter with "Police Woman." The evening's moderator, News Corp. president-COO Peter Chernin, who got his start in the biz with the producer, referred to his mentor throughout the proceedings as "the Gerbs." [...] hearing Gerber and contemporaries like Bill Self and Herman Rush talk about shows like the two above, as well as myriad others the honoree produced or greenlighted as a network head (the "George Washington" miniseries in the 80s and "The Lost Battalion" and "Flight 93" just a few years ago), I was struck by three things.

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