Oprah Winfrey To Be Replaced By Howard Beale
Next year, life as we know it will end. Oprah Winfrey will be ending her successful show.
Oprah’s program grew out of her stint as host of A.M. Chicago. The local program was so successful that after two and one-half years it went national to the other ABC-owned stations, and to general syndication. Now that Oprah’s sailing off
into the fog, her host station WLS-DT has decided what to do with the valuable time slot between Good Morning America and The View. They’re going to do a live, local morning news show.
No big deal, right? Lots of teevee stations have news shows following the endless network morning “news” show. But this one has a difference. This one has a live audience.
Just like Howard Beale, central character of the movie Network.
Like all of the better news shows, this new thing will be “local and fun,” according to WLS president and general manager Emily Barr.
“This will be another opportunity for us to do something terrific.”
Well, good luck with that. Personally, I loved Network and, with guys like Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly dominating the airwaves, the expansion of “unreality teevee” appears to be unstoppable.
Network is a great movie. I should watch that again soon. Haven't seen it in years.
I was thinking about "The Laugh-in News" and "SNL News Update" after reading this story. They had audiences too. Something tells me that Ms. Barr is one of those TV executives who attended school when they removed History as a mandatory subject! It reminds me of an anecdote that Harlan Ellison wrote about a TV executive who came up with the following idea: Let's do The Wiz…WHITE!