With the current round of big budget cuts at The Weather Channel, anywhere from three to four on-air meteorologists, including 22-year TWC veteran Cheryl Lemke, were let go. NBC Universal headed the consortium that completed the purchase of the Atlanta-based network back in September.
Cheryl's departure marks the end of an era. I used to enjoy watching her in action. On the Fox News Channel front, in a story broken on the TVNewser website, longtime anchorwoman E.D. Hill, who from 1998 until 2006 was one of the hosts of Fox & Friends, is leaving that network, with her contract not being renewed.
E.D. WAS Fox & Friends and will sorely be missed by many a viewer.
Former game show host Jack Narz, who hosted numerous game and quiz shows in the 1950s and 1960s, including Dotto, the show which touched off the Quiz Show Scandal, passed away on Wednesday morning at Cedars-Sinai Hospital at Beverly Hills, California at age 85.
I have a sister (who has a couple of web blogs) who remembers watching Dotto when she was three years old.
Mr. Narz was the brother of fellow former game show host Tom Kennedy (You Don't Say, the original version of Split Second, one of the various revivals of Name That Tune, amongst others).
Before he became a game show host, Jack was a regular on the old Space Patrol show, in which he hawked the sponsor's products, Ralston cereals such as Wheat Chex and Rice Chex, as well as special offers associated with the products, as seen here in this clip from 1953.
The daytime Dotto episode which touched off the quiz show firestorm was the episode in which one of the contestants (Marie Winn, who later became an author) had been given the answers in advance. A standby contestant spotted an open notebook in the contestants' dressing room, found the answers, ripped out that page from the notebook, and showed the page to the contestant's opponent. After receiving $1,500, this standby contestant was ready to forget the whole thing until the losing contestant received $4,000, the same amount as the winning contestant. Having felt double-crossed, the backup contestant, a part-time actor and butler by the name of Edward Hilgemeier, lodged a complaint with the Colgate-Parmolive Company, the show's sponsor. Shortly afterward, both the daytime (CBS) and nighttime (NBC) versions were cancelled by the respective networks.
Jack Narz did not know of the nafarious practice used on that show.
The National Football League on Tuesday suspended indefinitely without pay (at least four games) Dallas Cowboys defensive back Adam Jones because of an alcohol-related fight with his team-appointed bodyguard last week.
It appears that NFL commissioner Roger Godell was not going to screw around with the man who dropped his nickname "Pacman."
Yep, it looks like Cowboys owner Jerry Jones took a roll of the dice and crapped out. Another defensive back, Terrance Newman, is out with an injury, quarterback Tony Romo is expected to be out four weeks because of a broken pinky suffered in the Sunday loss at Arizona, their punter, Mat McBriar, is lost for the season after suffering a broken foot while getting a punt blocked that was returned for the Cardinals' game winning touchdown in overtime, and running back Felix Jones (no relation) is also injured.
UPDATE: The Dallas Cowboys, at the trade deadline, picked up wide receiver Roy Williams (and a 2009 7th round draft pick) from the Detroit Lions in exchange for three draft picks for 2009: A first, third, and sixth rounder.
Here is a 1959 cartoon from Paramount Cartoon Studios in New York City entitled "La Petite Parade" produced and directed by Seymour Kneitel (Max Fleischer's son-in-law).
The cartoon, originally released theatrically by Paramount Pictures, was subsequently released to television by the Harvey Company, which refilmed the titles, replacing the Paramount eblem with the Harveytoons logo, this being the case of the 1950-62 Famous-Paramount product, save for Popeye, which was sold separately to television in 1957.
As for Seymour Kneitel, he was a longtime animator with his father-in-law's studio and also worked on stories. Paramount, which beginning in 1927, started distributing the Fleischer brothers' cartoons, took over the studio in 1942. Seymour Kneitel became a director at the studio at that time, remaining with the outfit until his death in 1964.
Personnel:
Direction: Seymour Kneitel
Story: Irv Spector
Animation: Tom Johnson Nick Tafuri
Scenics: Robert Gentle
Music: Winston Sharples
Voice Characterizations (uncredited): Alan Swift
Cinematography (uncredited): Leonard McCormick
Production Manager (uncredited): Abe Goodman
Technicolor
RCA Sound System
6 Minutes
Released on March 6, 1959 by Paramount Pictures Corporation and produced by Paramount Cartoon Studios
Here is something that may make you want to smoke three packs of Chesterfields a day......
We have for you the opening and closing from an episode of It's About Time, which flopped as a prime time sitcom on CBS (1966-67). The series was created by Sherwood Schwartz, who created Gilligan's Island and The Brady Bunch.
Here is a 1942 Soundie with Duke Ellington and His Orchestra playing "Flamingo," featuring Herb Jeffries on the vocal, with dancing by Janet Collins (who looked smokin' hot) and Talley Beatty.
Mr. Jeffries, who is still with us today, will be 97 years old next Wednesday. He was also a singing cowboy, having sang and starred in a number of grade-B Westerns. He may well be the last of that breed, having outlasted the Gene Autrys, Roy Rogerses, Rex Allens, and Tex Ritters. In this short, he does a great job singing.
That cigarettes----well, Chesterfields, anyway---ARE good for you. That's George Fenneman, best remembered as Groucho Marx's sidekick on both the radio and television versions of You Bet Your Life. This commercial aired during an episode of the original version of Dragnet.
Also included, a commercial for a Remco drive-in movie theater for kids. How 'cum they didn't include Gunsmoke plus Kiko the Kangaroo, or Perry Mason plus Gandy Goose?
It's quite conceivable that you may have seen this film when you were in high school. Here is a 1950 film from Coronet Instructional Films how how to have a party, entitled What Makes A Good Party?
Here's an old promo for College Sports Television.
CSTV, which was purchased by CBS in early 2006, was further integrated into CBS Sports right after the start of this year and was renamed CBS College Sports Network this March.
Let's go back to 1955 for the original opening of an episode of Make Room For Daddy as was sponsored by the American Tobacco Company and televised on ABC. This clip includes a commercial for Pall Mall cigarettes. The series was also sponsored (on an alternating basis) by the Dodge division of Chrysler.
Danny Thomas' sitcom moved to CBS in 1957 and I think it wound up being sponsored by General Foods.
But here, we viewers witness Brer Rabbit, once again outsmarting Brer Fox and Brer Bear in this commerical for the 1955 Rambler. This ad aired on the old ABC Disneyland show.
These cars were sold not only at Nash dealerships, as the off-screen narrator intones, but Hudson dealerships as well. Depending on what dealership the particular car was sold, it carried either a Nash or Hudson badge at the front grill of the car.
Here, we see Mickey Mouse and Pluto in a commercial for the 1955 Nash Ambassador and Statesman.
American Motors Corporation, created in 1954 from the consolidation of Nash-Kelvinator and the Hudson Motor Car Company, was a key sponsor of the old Disneyland show that aired on ABC. The animation was, or course, produced by Walt Disney Productions.
heryl Lemke, were let go. NBC Universal headed the consortium that completed the purchase of the Atlanta-based network back in September.
ngtime anchorwoman E.D. Hill, who from 1998 until 2006 was one of the hosts of Fox & Friends, is leaving that network, with her contract not being renewed.
