Today

I have fond childhood memories of the Dave Garroway "Today" show from the early to mid-50's. I watched it every morning as I was preparing for school. I enjoyed seeing all those people in New York City standing in the street looking in the window as they were being shot live by the "Today" cameras. Members of the crowd held up signs with such homilies as hello, Mom, or Bruce, or folks back home, or whoever was watching their first appearance on national TV. Whenever the camera panned them, they would do crazy things such as distorting their faces, jumping up and down, screeching, winking an eye, and incessantly waving as if they had just landed on the moon.

The early "Today" show centered on the eccentric personality of Dave Garroway, who became almost a cult figure to some of his viewers. His signature trademark was to hold his right hand up at the end of the program and softly proclaim, "Peace." This tall, bespectacled host was certainly different than others of his ilk. He tended to be moody yet conversational while drinking a cup of coffee. Dave's nemesis was the so-called co-host J. Fred Muggs, a spoiled and pampered chimp. Obvious to viewers was the enmity Dave felt toward the chimp. Also obvious: the feeling was mutual. Dave and the chimp pretended that it was all in fun. One reason for this pretense was the popularity of the chimp over Dave. Dave let the chimp make a monkey of him because it kept the ratings up.

Almost as popular as Dave and the chimp were the other members of the "Today" morning team. Jack Lescoulie gave the sports, served as reporter, and participated in the hijinks with J. Fred and Dave from time to time. He was a colorful character with a gift of gab who did his job well. He would sit in for Dave when needed. The news anchor, Frank Blair, was the most laid back of the "Today" staff. He was droll in his humor but Like Jack Lescoulie often participated in the fun and games. As I recall he also gave the weather.

Dave was gifted in several ways. His intellect enabled him to communicate his ideas and feelings with ease yet in a way that seemed informal and genuine. He conducted many of the best interviews of early television. He had an innate sense of what world work and what wouldn't work on early morning television when choosing guests and topics. Because of his tortured personal life, the gifts he possessed sadly began to wane till he was dropped by NBC and drifted into oblivion.

Someone suggested the show go to a 1 hour format, because that would be plenty of time to get what they wanted in. Well, how about going to a 15 minute format. That's about how much substance there is on any given show.

Even the weather primarily consists of Al Roker joking around on the plaza. I actually like him, but they should stop the charade that he's giving a forecast and just say "Here's Al Roker, who is going to schmooze a bit on the plaza and then unhelpfully gesture toward a map the United States and mention that in some part of the country it will rain. Or not rain."

Once the Today Show had merit with the likes of Ann Curry but it's become a hollow program more concerned about lame entertainment than meaningful news. I stopped watching. And once, Hoda Kotb was a valuable journalist fell into the trap of entertainment over news and subsequently left Today to devote her time to Hoda and Jenna another lame show that doesn't, however, claim to be anything else. I'm not even sure why I gave it 3 Stars. Maybe it was locality to what it once was.

As you can imagine my opportunities for watching are limited to my all too infrequent trips to the US. But I did for one hectic week actually help produce this show, albeit in a very minor capacity. Apart from Wimbledon coverage for HBO this was my first real experience working for American TV, and it was quite an eye opener. In July 1989 the French 'celebrated' their bicentennial of their revolution, and while pretty much every British broadcaster ignored it, the 'Yanks' came over in force.

Presumably the language barrier was thought to be too great for the French to overcome and so NBC hired a British truck, (bizarrely, staffed by Swedish technicians) and hired British operators and engineers of whom I was one. The shoot was on the banks of the Seine, opposite Notre Dame. Just a few yards down from us were ABC with their Good Morning America show, similarly equipped, and fortunately quite friendly as we had to borrow some lighting equipment from them! This was the swansong of Jane Pauley who turned out to be a real lady. Sadly she was about to be stiffed by NBC she was soon to be replaced by a younger, blonder presenter (who guested during the week with us) Shame, as Pauley was a hit with the audience, us, and the many, many, passers by who she treated with respect and courtesy. Bryant Gumbel in contrast, hid what charm he had under a steely, cold exterior, and left me at least in no doubt who was in charge of that particular production.

We also had the pleasure of the company of Willard Scott, who turned out to be a laugh a minute and defused many a tense situation with his easy going humour. Scott has even less hair than I and confused the hell out of me when I saw him later on that year in the studio, with apparently flowing locks. It was only after watching for a few days I realised that he was expected to wear a hairpiece in the studio, but excused the wig, in the blustery conditions of outside work! The real star for me was the director. He's not credited here, but is elsewhere on the IMDb, but forgive me for not naming him. Those in the business will have heard of the $500K+ a year he was making then, and know who I mean. In contrast to the almost fawningly polite style of British Television (I still remember being told on my BBC induction course in the 1970's that we were expected to hold open the doors as we walked around Television Centre, for other members of staff) Americans were direct, and utterly ruthless. One mistake and you were bawled out, two and you were cut, no argument. Remarkable then that I survived the full week although I did learn one or two new swear words. Credit though, when the show was over he walked to every person on that crew and thanked them by name - something a few British directors could learn. I still have a tape we recorded of the show with the his tailback on an extra audio track - and it still makes me blush! The British claim to have invented TV, and well we might, but the Americans have largely perfected it - and they're at their best in this genre of live News and Features. The slick one-two presenter style with throws to specialist sports/weather/news headlines presenters is now adopted by all of our domestic channels, and we know what imitation is

I'm not sure where you got your data about cast members, but someone needs to check it with NBC. Dave Garroway, the original host of Today, appeared on at least 2000 episodes during the first nine years of the run -- 5 days a week for at least 48 weeks a year for nine years -- but you credited him with 3 episodes. Jack Lesculie was an everyday regular on the show for at least 3 years in the beginning. To credit these men with fewer appearances than J. Fred Muggs, a chimpanzee who appeared on the show during that era, is an insult to their memory -- particularly since Muggs was biting them all the time! In those days, the program was live, so the human performers had to be careful how they reacted. Seriously, this was one of the most important programs in the early days of television, thanks largely to the work of Garroway, Pat Weaver and newscaster Frank Blair. It trained people to get up in the mornings and turn on their sets -- a habit we've continued to practice for more than half a century!