Local News Legends Reunite on the Set in Chicago
Kurtis, Jacobson Back in the Day
Wow. Just when I was really getting my local news is dead groove on, WBBM/Chicago has to go and pull a sweeps stunt with a touch of class and a nod to better times: reuniting the legendary Chicago anchor team of Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson.
My Dad worked at WBBM in the era of "Bill and Walter," and I can recall the energy and excitement of walking through Kurtis and Jacobson's newsroom at Channel 2. It was the kind of experience that makes a kid dream of working in television news. For a taste of that bygone era, watch this awesome WBBM promo.
So I tip my hat to WBBM news director Jeff Kiernan, who had the great idea of putting the two men back together on the ten o'clock news tonight. If you're in Chicago and you have any connection or affection for the medium of television, how could you possibly not watch this? It's like hearing that tonight, Beutel and Grimsby will be back on the set at WABC, or Bishop and Lauderdale will reunite at WPLG/Miami. It's an event that reminds us of the power local news anchor teams had for so long.
The softie in me longs for those days. I remember standing silently in the studio during a newscast at WCBS when I was a kid--again on a trip to visit Dad at work--and watching in amazement as Warner Wolf did the sports right in front of my eyes. So forgive me a bit of sentimentality at this oddly satisfying bit of local newser news. Nobody's been fired, been forced to take a pay cut, or told to do two jobs for one paycheck.
Instead, Chicagoans get to watch a moment. Gimmick? Sure. But so's cotton candy. And just like cotton candy, getting some when you didn't expect it--and knowing that the taste of the spun sugar on your tongue will remind you of those magic days when television, like a carnival, was magic instead of slimy and very possibly dangerous--is an experience to behold.
Give 'em hell, Bill and Walter.
[If you could turn on the tube tonight and watch a legendary local anchor team take another swing on the set, who would it be?]
Ron Burgundy's Memo to Chuck Scarborough: "Stay Classy, and Go Home."
The Man, the Myth, the Legend: San Diego's Ron Burgundy
Ron Burgundy has a message for mega-anchors like WNBC's living legend Chuck Scarborough: "fly off into the sunset while there's still a dash of news left."
Okay. The quote's not technically from Burgundy himself (admittedly, a fictional character and all) but from the closest thing we have to Burgundy this side of Will Ferrell, "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" co-writer Adam McKay, who writes in today's New York Post that the day of the big time local news anchor is officially over. "So farewell perfectly parted ones," McKay writes. "Adieu teleprompter readers."
McKay's op-ed comes on the heels of a rough week for high-salaried, deep rooted local newsers, like Paul Moyer in LA and Len Berman in NYC. Both announcing unexpected departures from NBC O&O's, and raising questions about the network's continued investment in superstar anchors like New York's Chuck Scarborough.
When Anchors Ruled the World: WABC's Monster Duo: Roger Grimsby and Bill Beutel
As McKay writes, "Their avuncular baritone voices reassured us in times of crisis and made us laugh when there was a frog leaping contest or a cat who had befriended a pig. But slowly their days are coming to an end."
McKay has a pretty good grasp on the changing local news landscape, noting that "gone are the days of only three networks, the days when these men were gods." And sure enough, he's right. I realized earlier this week that I may have been clouded by my own emotions--rooted in the local news of my childhood, with three stations doing news and big, oversized anchors chuckling and clearly ruling the Earth--when I wrote that it would be nuts for NBC to get rid of Chuck.
The movie man may have a better grasp on my biz than I do: "Let's face it," McKay says. "Local news has always been pretty sugary, but these days it looks like the National Enquirer and the Weekly World News had a baby and taught it to only speak drug shootings and Madonna affairs. It's orange, loud, dumb and absolutely devoid of any news whatsoever outside of the occasional baby food recall or toxic spill. I'm convinced their entire audience consists of people looking to see if they got on TV while waving their hands behind a reporter in the field."
Ouch.
Detroit's One and Only Bill Bonds
I'm tempted to defend my dear local news, with an impassioned argument of the irreplaceable role of local newsers in informing communities in the face of dangerous weather and in the aftermath of horrible tragedies. But the impulse passes quickly.
McKay offers this to the goliaths who still toil in TV: plan your exit, and plan it now, while you still can. "What does a retired anchorman do? He can yell at the neighborhood kids not to play in his yard in a pitch-perfect non-geographically specific voice. He can watch the local anchor in Clearwater, Florida, and mumble 'punk kid' to himself. Or he can host a PBS news show and bask in the joy of no producer handing him copy about a dog trapped in a drainage ditch."
Too bad PBS isn't hiring.
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