Co-Anchors Aweigh: One Just Dozes Off, Another Delivers Loaded Exit Line
News, weather and bloopers: Continuing my series on local TV news, I phoned Jess Marlow to see if he could remember any classic boo-boos.
Marlow, who co-hosts KCET’s “Life and Times Tonight,” told me about a humorous moment from his days as an anchor at KNBC-TV Channel 4.
One night, consumer affairs reporter David Horowitz delivered what was (or seemed like) a very long segment on a rather dry subject.
Marlow’s co-anchor was Kelly Lange, who had a reputation as the hardest-working person at the station. And she had taken on several extra assignments around that time. Anyway, Marlow said that when the camera cut from Horowitz back to Lange, “she was sleeping.”
Marlow said: “David was not happy.”
More bloopers: Then there was the time that the Channel 2 news closed with a piece on freeway chickens, the survivors of a poultry crash on the 101. Marlow said that his co-anchor Connie Chung then signed off, on the air, with: “Let’s get the flock out of here.”
Marlow said: “I’ll never forget the shocked expression on [sportscaster] Jim Hill’s face.” Marlow added that Chung “swears she had no idea what she said.”
Memorial Day tips: Holidays always put me in mind of food (as do non-holidays for that matter). Anyway, here are a few weekend dining ideas from readers (see accompanying):
* A whale of a piece of crab (submitted by Dan Fink of L.A.)
* A notation for parents on a package of chili (Mike Howard of Chino)
* And a yogurt joint in Pasadena that offered just one choice. “Tres Zen,” pointed out Patrick Mauer of West L.A., taking note of the name that was flashing on the sign.
Finally, I’ve heard of fog being described as thick as pea soup. But I don’t think I’d ever heard of the weather being described as tasty until Marilyn Wagner of Palm Desert sent along her finding.
Two nations separated by a common language: Why are Britons often in a good mood when they land in L.A.?
Because, Duncan Campbell of the Guardian newspaper writes, they are tickled to hear the public address system at LAX “telling them earnestly: ‘You are not required to give money to solicitors.’ ”
Campbell continues: “This is reassuring news to anyone who has had an argument with their lawyer over why they have been billed 185 pounds because the lawyer’s secretary made a phone call on their behalf, or because they ended up paying a solicitor a larger sum in fees than they were awarded in a damages action.”
Campbell is having fun with the fact that a solicitor on the other side of the Atlantic is a lawyer. LAX’s p.a. system, of course, is referring to panhandlers, who generally expect less than lawyers, though not always.
Campbell pointed to the case of alleged members of an Iranian terrorist group in L.A., who, according to the FBI, asked arrivals at LAX for money for starving children and were said to be making $5,000 to $10,000 a day through their soliciting.
Stupid Driver Tricks: “I saw a woman driving with her left hand on the steering wheel,” wrote Peter Heiman of Malibu, “while her right hand was holding a bottle feeding an infant in the rear-facing baby seat in the back of the car.”
At least she wasn’t also talking on a cell phone.
Unless she had one of those hands-free sets.
miscelLAny: The marquee at the Commerce Plaza Hotel, off the Santa Ana Freeway, says: “Our towels are so fluffy it’s hard to close your suitcase.”
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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LA-TIMES, Ext. 77083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A., 90012 and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.