This evening I dug out my scrapbook to digitally capture some things for future bloggage. (The whole “digital” thing is partially responsible for my having only one scrapbook with several empty pages. The other reason is that I have led a considerably dull life.)
According to The Wikipedia:
On January 12, 1987, The Morning Program made its debut hosted by actress Mariette Hartley and Rolland Smith, former longtime anchor at WCBS-TV in New York City. Radio personality Mark McEwen handled the weather, while comedian Bob Saget did comedy bits. Produced by the network’s entertainment division, the show ran for 90 minutes…
…The Morning Program, with its awkward mix of news, entertainment and comedy, became the joke of the industry, receiving scathing reviews. At one point, it generated a mere 10 percent share, the lowest ratings that CBS had seen in the morning slot in five years… A longtime producer summed up this version of the program upon its demise by saying, “…everyone thought we had the lowest ratings you could have in the morning. The Morning Program proved us wrong”
Now that’s just sad. And I edited quite a lot out of that!
So why am I telling you this?
Well, you see, my Aunt Kay– who lived in New York City for many years–worked for some time at an advertising agency. This was a gravy train for yours truly, as Aunt Kay hooked me up with network TV swag including the 1983 CBS Inc. Annual Report (informative! And it had pictures of Garfield), and the coolest T-shirt I have ever owned or will own:
I still have it. Still wear it. Still love it.
I also have some souvenirs from my visit to CBS Broadcast Center in New York City, where on March 20, 1987 they broadcast….The Morning Program! Aunt Kay got us tickets on one of my visits to see her in NYC. We arrived at CBS and were led down a series of corridors. There were huge black and white photos mounted on the walls but I saw no familiar CBS faces like Bob Barker, Walter Cronkite or the aforementioned Garfield. (CBS Broadcast Center is also the network’s corporate headquarters, those photos were likely of the network’s executives.)
We got to the studio and were put in the “overflow room”. TV show tickets are distributed in excess of available seats, because they don’t want to cut to a shot of the audience and see empty seats. I was bummed that we didn’t get to see the show in the studio…but we overflowees got a pretty sweet consolation prize! After the show we were escorted into the studio to see where the TV magic is made AND to meet the hosts of “The Morning Program”!
Going in order of least likely to be remembered by people to most likely:
Rolland Smith was the hard news guy of the show, a big name in NYC television news before and after this series aired.
Mariette Hartley actually played a news anchor in a sitcom in 1984. Maybe that’s where CBS got the idea?
Or maybe they remembered her from this long-running ad campaign…
Mark McEwen did the weather on “The Morning Program”, and the next several iterations of the CBS morning show. His role was expanded over the years and he had one of the longest runs in morning television…quite the story:
And then there’s this guy. His star was about to rise in a big way…and yes, I’m going to embed the theme song. Everything’s better with theme songs:
So, what was it like being inside a real television studio for the first time in my life? It was incredible! I was stunned by all of the lights hanging from the ceiling…surprised at how small the set looked. (This still surprises me when I go to TV show tapings…the television camera does some kind of optical stretch that makes things look wider and deeper on screen.)
As I recall, Rolland Smith and Mariette Hartley were both very pleasant, asked me if I was having fun in New York, etc. But Mark and Bob took a little more time. Mark had some sort of homemade craft item in his hand that a viewer had sent him, and he asked me to hold it while he signed my ticket. He might have even said “You can have it!” in a joking kind of way. Bob Saget was friendly and wrote a nice message on the ticket. I always thought it was cool, in watching “Full House” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos” (aka “OK Boomer YouTube”) to know that I had met the guy.
And now, to prove that literally everything is on YouTube: a full, 90-minute episode of “The Morning Program” featuring some horrible puns and a young (well, middle-aged) Robert Osbourne.