Tuesday, July 06, 2021

Early Shelley Long

Staying with the 4th of July theme, here's a fun rarity.  Before she was an actress in Hollywood, Shelley Long worked as a TV field reporter.  And a damn good one at that.  Here's an example.  Her 4th of July report on WMAQ, Chicago.  Is there anything this talented woman can't do?  Enjoy. 

Note: If you can't get the video, you're probably on a device.  Click on the "web version" and you should be fine. 

23 comments :

John in NW Ohio said...

Holy moly. Channel 5 certainly had some talented field reporters in those days. Jane Pauley, Shelly Long, and Greg Gumbel? All, of course, went on great success, although Jane Pauley was probably a co-anchor by then, I'd guess.

(Did they blot out Greg Gumbel's bald spot? I watched twice, and still am not sure.)

Mmryan314 said...

Your video is not showing up for me Ken.

Anonymous said...

The video embed doesn't seem to work on mobile devices. Here's the direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljgrMmyw1Cw

James said...

Starts at 14:58, if you don't want to sit through the earlier segments.

Brian Phillips said...

Note that they spelled it "Gumble". I can hear him using Eddie Murphy's voice, "I am Gumbel, d***it!".

Maybe he changed it to distance himself from his alcoholic brother Barney?

Brian Phillips said...

It's nice to see this, thank you! She would use her Journalism skills in "That Time of the Month" or "Basic Values: Sex, Shock & Censorship in the 90's", a Showtime special.

https://vimeo.com/41328053

McAlvie said...

Hey she was pretty good. Very talented, as you said, Ken.

You know, those days seem like yesterday until I look at the hair and clothes. And I can’t even poke fun because I looked at some yearbook photos recently, and we all looked like that!

Call Me Mike said...

Friday Question: Speaking of the great Shelly Long, (apologies if this has been covered) were there any specific plans for Diane Chambers before she decided to leave Cheers? Was she going to marry Sam and their married life was going to be the focus?

John Schrank said...

I ran across this commercial Shelly did years ago and marveled that she is so charming and believable they really don't show any furniture. She convinces you to shop at the client's business through her own powers of persuasion. I have read she did a series of spots for this client, and even came back 'round after she was well-known to do more
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b82Sdo_2TA

Lance said...

I remain very annoyed at how poorly she (or at least her character) was treated on "Modern Family."

Here she is playing the mother of two of the series leads (and the ex-wife of another) and she makes a piddling total of about a half-dozen appearances across the series and they even wrote her out of attending her own son's wedding! Ridiculous! (Yes, I know, guest star salaries are huge and you don't want to pay a big name actor to just be in the background of an episode, etc. etc.) Still, it was bonkers.

Then they kill off the character off-screen and her last "appearance" on the show was a voice-mail.

Ken, you've probably spoken about it, but, fairly or unfairly, Shelley Long has obtained a reputation for being "difficult."

Do you think that reputation played a part in how little she wound up being featured? Or am I just reading into it?

Roger Owen Green said...

The Cubs were 75-87 in 1976, 4th in the NL East, despite Ernie Banks' optimism.

YEKIMI said...

Ha! 1976, year I got out of high school. Heard NBC was doing live broadcasts from various parts of the country and they had picked a town north of mine as one of the spots. Since my town had nothing planned till later that evening, I trundled on over to see what they were going to do. No big shot reporters, just a couple of actual studio cameras mounted on a platform. Local reporter was doing the live remote stuff but in between those he was reading a book and you could tell he was bored shitless and probably wishing he could have been anywhere else but there. I was sitting against a tree watching the festivities going on and didn't realize that they were doing cutaways of video shots only now and then. Lo and behold, someone later that evening, once I went back to my city, a friend said "Hey! I saw you on TV today!" I was like "What?" and found out later they had taken a shot of me just sitting there against the tree. So I went "national" for about 20-30 seconds that day as they did a slow pan around the town square.

sanford said...

She also did commercials for John m smyth furniture. There are some on you tube

Mike Bloodworth said...

Shelly Long joined Second City in 1976. However, I don't know if she performed with them before or after this newscast. But it wouldn't surprise me if her improv training helped her as a reporter. Obviously, improv can help a person think on their feet. And you're trained to listen to the other person which can help in an interview.
I can't tell you how many times I've seen a reporter struggling on the air trying to find the right word or with a follow up question. My first thought is, that person could really use an improv class.
I believe that if a person wants to be a reporter he, she, it, should take an improv class. Like it or not, no matter how much you think you're a journalist you're also a performer.
I hope Shelly is doing well these days.
M.B.

Barry Traylor said...

Thanks for sharing this.

Mike Doran said...

First off: SHELLEY Long - two 'e's.

Shelley Long wasn't a "street reporter" at channel 5: she was co-host of a magazine show on weekends called Sorting It Out, an early manifestation of what came to be known as "infotainment".
At this point, Shelley's main employment was on the main stage at Second City, where she caught the attention of the Chicago theater community.
Concurrently, she started picking up work in local commercials (such as Homemakers, op cit.: "It's not low-priced furniture - it's good furniture at low prices!"
Most of her subsequent career, you already know ...

Joseph Finn said...

Holy heck, the Mount Prospect water tower! That's my hometown!

Headacher said...

It was very surprising when the local Chicago "Homemaker's Furniture girl" showed up on the brand new (and certainly "doomed!") TV series, "Cheers". I was a kid then, so I didn't watch the news. I had no idea Shelly Long had ever done any work on Channel 5's news. I just knew, from those commercials, that she was very cute, friendly and very professional. Oh, and obviously most talented. And that TV series ended up doing quite well actually.

(I tried posting this earlier from my phone, but it hasn't shown up. If it does, sorry about the repeat.)

DanMnz said...

We in Clinton, MA have the OLDEST baseball diamond in the world :)
Heard her mention the most per capita in the video.

SummitCityScribe said...

In addition to Shelley Long's incredible talent, she's also a lovely person. I wonder how many know that she voluntarily stepped away from the business for a time and returned to her Indiana hometown to help care for her aged mother, Ivadine (who eventually passed away at the age of 101). Shelley Long is a class act all around.

Mike Bloodworth said...

Re: Spelling. You are correct. My error.
M.B.

Tom said...

That's how I came in '82 to watch some new show called "Cheers." Because it starred two actors I knew from local TV and Second City, the otherwise unknowns called Shelley Long and George Wendt. Long especially was well-known in Chicago for the shows and commercials cited above...everyone my age still remembers the "good furniture at low prices" tagline.

bbison said...

8 episodes as a guest star and some *very* memorable plotlines is hardly being treated poorly. Quite certain she wouldn't agree with your assessment.