My weekly (weakly?) AMERICAN IDOL recap will follow in a few hours. I have to host Dodger Talk then will come home, watch and review the show. I understand tonight is inspirational music night so I damn well better be inspired.
In the meantime, as an addendum to my post last week about the final night at CHEERS, I found this local news feature on it. See for yourself what it was like.
Oddly, I am watching Jack Williams doing tonight's news in Boston while I'm watching this video. How is it that news anchors never age? And just last week, WBZ announced that they have bought out Joyce Kulhawik's contract, along with WBZ sports anchor Bob Lobel, who had a small role on Cheers in 1984, in "Coach Buries a Grudge". Did he at least get an invite inside the Hampshire House?
ReplyDeleteWow, that brought back a lot of memories. Growing up just outside of Boston, I remember seeing the first episode of Cheers, (that first night, really only because it was set in Boston), and then watching that last new report with Liz Walker, Jack Williams and Joyce Kulhawik. What an amazing show.
ReplyDeleteIt really doesn't feel all that long ago, but alas ...
As for Kulhawik and Lobel's contracts being bought out. That's simply mind-blowing. To me, they were Boston news icons (as much as I didn't really like either of them). But I've digressed.
Thanks for posting this video. It provides a lot of context to what it was like when the show ended and what an impact it had.
-A
My guess is that the ability to get news from so many different sources nowadays, especially sports and entertainment, is killing the local tv personalities. There are much less relevant than ever before but highly compensated. When stations cut costs, people like Lobel and Kulhawik are shown the door...cutting them loose still sent shockwaves around here last week.
ReplyDeleteInternet killed the local news stars...
Eric
Ah, man, where is the rest of the report? I feel gypped--just as we go inside it goes dark. No offense to any Gypsies in here.
ReplyDeleteOh, all those Boston anchors I knew way back when. Liz Walker, Joyce Kulhawik. Chet and Natalie. I've been living in L.A. forever now and I barely remember any of the anchors I see on a daily basis here. I remember when Tom Bergeron hit it big on a national talk show, I thought, "Hey that's the guy who would arch his brow and say 'People are Talking'".
ReplyDeleteI vaguely remember something about Liz Walker being unmarried and pregnant (a shocking offense back then) and not talking about who the father was. I also remember that it was completely pointless to be a weatherman in Boston. It would have been more statistically accurate to throw chicken bones on the ground and guess "sleet"... in May.
More footage on http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4i9d_cheers-cast-drunk_blog
ReplyDelete