These remarks are mainly about the first version of Nightwatch, the 1982-83 one. I've mentioned this elsewhere (in places like Jump the Shark), but this was a show that seemed to get no publicity to speak of, and no promoting by its own network to speak of, in spite of being, in several ways, a "groundbreaking" show (the format and so on). In many ways, it had the opposite problem of the show NBC Overnight (from the same year), which had a kind of cult following, but one that didn't prevent it from getting canceled (which in turn caused a lot of anger). I think that maybe one of Nightwatch's problems was just the opposite of what I mentioned about it being "groundbreaking" - in most ways it was very low-key, not an in-your-face, hugely controversial kind of interview show (there were exceptions of course, like the John Mellencamp interview). Maybe that kind of thing wasn't as big then as later, but it was already pretty big, with 60 Minutes and Barbara Walters and so on, and a show that didn't go in that direction, let alone a show that came on in the middle of the night, would have that (for no good reason) going against it. Even though I certainly liked the Charlie Rose version later on, and the others to a degree, this is the "Nightwatch" I became attached to, and I certainly liked everyone on it. But - I had (and have, for that matter) a thorough-going crush on the host named Mary Jo West. (I'm far from alone in that - I always remember the actor Michael Nouri embarrassing her, in a harmless way, by openly flirting with her on the show.) For quite some time, I've been trying to find recordings of this ' 82-' 83 version of Nightwatch, with some degree of luck (surprisingly or not), but I'm definitely looking for others. Would anyone reading this have any?
