'MOVING IN' Pat Croce hits the road to help inspire change in people on his show

Croce says he uses his optimistic attitude to help people.
By FRAZIER MOORE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK -- In an era when makeover shows are the craze, Pat Croce has introduced a show with a less sweeping goal: to make that needed first step.
The weekday, syndicated "Pat Croce: Moving In" puts this self-described "cheerleader for change" inside his subjects' lives and on their home turf, where he aims to serve them as "a kick start."
Croce kick-starts a stay-at-home father so remiss in his domestic chores it's destroying his family and marriage; a single mother's rebellious 16-year-old son who threatens to move out; a father whose excessive appetite is harming him as well as the young daughter who follows his example; and an actor named David who is putting off marriage until he achieves stardom, while he leaves girlfriend Deana hanging.
How he helps
At the beginning of each half-hour (10 and 10:30 a.m. weekdays, WYTV Channel 33), Croce pulls up to the curb in his motor home, briefs the audience from his subjects' front yard, then knocks on the door.
What follows is an intensive but evenhanded session with all concerned.
"I'll support you either way," Croce tells the disgruntled Deana as David looks on -- "but should you not stay together, I have for you a ticket on a singles cruise, where you can meet hundreds of good-looking, eligible bachelors."
The lesson for Deana and David alike is crystal clear: There are always other options.
Croce doesn't promise "a facelift change," as he explains during a recent interview. "It's a change of direction, a change of thought. 'The ancestor of every action is a thought': Emerson. I love that quote."
Granted, Croce doesn't look to be someone who quotes Emerson. But he has made a career -- or several of them -- by defying expectations.
Croce's career
A self-made multimillionaire from the streets of Philadelphia, he was a physical therapist who built a chain of sports-medicine centers while hosting a radio show. Employed by the Philadelphia 76ers as a conditioning coach, he became president and an owner of that franchise, which zoomed from last place to first in the National Basketball Association's Eastern conference and, in 2001, went to the finals. Then he served as a studio analyst for NBC's NBA coverage and, last summer, as a color commentator for Olympics martial arts coverage.
Croce has the wiry frame befitting a fourth-degree karate black belt. He has a blinding grin, a high-rev manner and a 27-year marriage to his high school sweetheart. His earring is a testament to his rebel love of buccaneers that spurred him to create a pirate museum in Key West, Fla., set to open after Thanksgiving. He is generous with hugs. And should anyone doubt his positive outlook, he is known to wear glasses with rose-colored lenses.
"I have a God-given gift of energy and optimism," says Croce, who turns 50 next month, "and this talent to affect people from the street to the elite."
Wanted a talk show
No wonder Croce in recent years has scored as a motivational speaker at up to $50,000 an appearance. And after three self-help books ("Lead or Get Off the Pot!" is his latest) a talk show was the logical next step.
But when production began, Croce eschewed the comfort of a studio and hit the road. "People don't know how to break down their vision into a game plan," he says. "You place me in their environment, and I can help."
What he promotes is a set of incremental changes, rather than a quick fix.
"I really want to focus on where are the people today, and what are they willing to do to get to where they want to be tomorrow," he says. "I try to give suggestions, not instructions. And I do a lot of listening."