I'm Jessica Savitch and I'm TOTALLY FUCKED UP in New York
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 146 | July 12, 2023 2:49 PM |
Just a very sad situation.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | July 6, 2023 12:38 PM |
She'll be fine.
If she keeps her head above water.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | July 6, 2023 12:40 PM |
For years, that first clip was talked and written about as though Jessica had begun belting out "How Dry I Am" before voiding her bowels then passing out. Then YouTube came along and suddenly we could all view the infamous broadcast did itself.
The truth? She slurs, she stumbles over a few words, and her timing is off. That's it. How many news anchors have we seen since then who have been on-air while totally smashed? This could only have been a big deal in 1983.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | July 6, 2023 3:15 PM |
This reminds me of Bill O’Reilly’s breakdown.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 6 | July 6, 2023 6:30 PM |
^GIRLLLLLLL
One of the YT comments:
[quote] Do it Live, Diva!!!
😂
by Anonymous | reply 8 | July 6, 2023 6:44 PM |
She might have been a mess, but I always admired her.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | July 6, 2023 6:59 PM |
At least she did not get fired on her first day like this really cute guy did. Anyone know what he is doing now?
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 11 | July 6, 2023 7:08 PM |
I bet I know how to broadcast with a bang!
by Anonymous | reply 13 | July 6, 2023 7:19 PM |
R11 holy shit! That was absolutely cringeworthy.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | July 6, 2023 7:39 PM |
R12 why didn’t she get fired?
R11 although, AJ appeared high? Was he?
by Anonymous | reply 15 | July 6, 2023 7:40 PM |
R11 this gives you some inside scoop on him.
His twitter page states he is still a reporter.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 16 | July 6, 2023 7:42 PM |
R15 - Sue was a NYC institution - she and Chuck had been on WNBC for decades. Also - via youtube comments:
@VicGChad07 1 year ago Additional context for those not in the loop: This was a live-to-air teaser for News 4 New York -- the local news program for NBC flagship WNBC 4 -- and it aired during the Medium Season 4 finale "Drowned World".
Simmons saw Scarborough fiddling with his laptop, and she thought the take would be discarded and a new one shot for air; production assistants failed to inform her beforehand that they were live while the teasers were running.
Since the incident happened after 10 PM local time in accord with the FCC's safe harbor, no action was taken and no fine was assessed against WNBC.
by Anonymous | reply 17 | July 6, 2023 7:46 PM |
There would have been riots if Sue had been fired. I can't think of anyone who didn't love Sue Simmons.
by Anonymous | reply 19 | July 6, 2023 7:51 PM |
I liked her and looked forward to seeing her. Question - WTF was NBC Overnight?
by Anonymous | reply 20 | July 6, 2023 7:58 PM |
I love that Sue Simmon's clip - it is SO her. I loved her "eating crow" apology that she clearly did not want to make, because she MEANT what the fuck are you doing!
by Anonymous | reply 21 | July 6, 2023 7:58 PM |
r20. NBC used to run a Mon-thru Fri 60 second -or so- news update between network shows (I think at 8 pm?). This was back when their were 3 networks. In the same era one of the networks ran a similar 'bi-centennial minute' (a 45 second history on some revolutionary war era character.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | July 6, 2023 9:18 PM |
AJ Clemente explains what happened.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 23 | July 6, 2023 9:52 PM |
This is PRIME TIME Television here, folks!
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 24 | July 6, 2023 11:05 PM |
Imagine a world where you'd have to tune-in on the hour to get the latest headlines from a talking head? Otherwise, you'd have to wait for the 11 o'clock news- or stew all night until The Today Show came on!
by Anonymous | reply 25 | July 6, 2023 11:53 PM |
People tormented Jessica for a possibly drunken news update.
But damn, they let Diane Sawyer on the air drunk every night.
Do you know, Diane? Do you?
by Anonymous | reply 26 | July 6, 2023 11:55 PM |
NBC News Overnight aired after Late Night with David Letterman (and Friday Night Videos, too, I believe). It was a final newscast for the day, more irreverent than, say, the NBC Nightly News or Today. When Linda Ellerbee dies, "irreverent" will probably be included on her tombstone.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | July 6, 2023 11:58 PM |
You found out more actual news with the NBC News Digest segments than you do now with 5 24/7 cable news channels.
by Anonymous | reply 28 | July 7, 2023 12:55 AM |
Jessica Savitch was the best there ever was--and still is the best. No one has ever come close.
by Anonymous | reply 29 | July 7, 2023 1:01 AM |
R27 I remember Ellerbee and now have a vague memory of NBC News Overnight, I just had forgotten what it was called. R28 Yes and if something major happened you would get a Special Report or further back, a News Bulletin as when JFK was assassinated.
by Anonymous | reply 30 | July 7, 2023 1:06 AM |
Funny thing......Linda Ellerbee had cancer.
by Anonymous | reply 31 | July 7, 2023 1:07 AM |
I thought Special Report was NBC and BULLETIN was CBS
by Anonymous | reply 32 | July 7, 2023 1:08 AM |
I took an extension course at UCLA and the professor was an NBC executive. Once he played a video the workers had made set to Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry". Savitch got the prime spot when the line "The bubble headed bleach blond comes on at 5" and not only was the "This is prime time television" included, another very intriguing moment was when she looks into the camera and mouths very clearly "who do I fuck to get out of here". This was before the News Digest blowup so her problems were very well known for a while.
by Anonymous | reply 33 | July 7, 2023 1:23 AM |
Oh but how I wish she had been around to interview Trump. That really would have been "Must see TV."
by Anonymous | reply 34 | July 7, 2023 1:34 AM |
The 80s were an abysmal decade for women's hairstyles. They were either like hers or perms.
by Anonymous | reply 35 | July 7, 2023 1:42 AM |
The biography, "Almost Golden," gives you a glimpse into her fucked up life. She almost had a shot at being a truly great journalist, but her demons kept her down.
by Anonymous | reply 36 | July 7, 2023 1:46 AM |
R36, but that was the problem. She was not a great journalist, she was a great news reader. The direction of news into more entertainment was a direct result of her influence, IMO, but she was never going to be a top news journalist because she didn't have the talent. On the other hand, her delivery was magical and immediate, something a journalist like Linda Ellerbee could never even approach.
by Anonymous | reply 37 | July 7, 2023 2:31 AM |
R25, in many ways, I miss that world.
by Anonymous | reply 38 | July 7, 2023 2:44 AM |
[quote]There would have been riots if Sue had been fired. I can't think of anyone who didn't love Sue Simmons.
I met Sue Simmons a few times, years ago, and she was always lovely.
by Anonymous | reply 39 | July 7, 2023 2:46 AM |
Jessica had a host of mental issues as well, all exacerbated by her cocaine habit. Inside, she was little girl lost. Outside she was a needy, drugged up mess who drove away her friends.
Linda Ellerbee tried to connect because they had a lot in common, but Jessica got weird. Andrea Mitchell was very sweet with Jessica but still couldn’t connect. Sue Simmons was her lover for a while but the ever-patient Sue couldn’t get a handle on her.
In the end, Jessica looked well beyond 37 when she died…and it seems like many friends were expected an OD, not the squalid ending in a canal.
by Anonymous | reply 40 | July 7, 2023 2:49 AM |
Horrible death with her beloved dog. C'mon, that's sad.
by Anonymous | reply 41 | July 7, 2023 3:02 AM |
One time one of those news briefs came on and all you saw for 20 seconds was the back of a mirror, with an arm brushing some blonde hair furiously. I forget who it was, you never saw her face but it wasn't Jessica though.
by Anonymous | reply 42 | July 7, 2023 3:05 AM |
Diane Sawyer is my girl. I love her and her popped collars. In this clip she sips wine and pops a pill. No telling what kind of pill it was, but she's drinking the wine out of a wine glass because she does not give a fuck.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 43 | July 7, 2023 3:07 AM |
^^Fuck yeah Diane! You drink that wine before doing the news, girl!
by Anonymous | reply 44 | July 7, 2023 3:32 AM |
Jessica Savitch and Peter Jennings were the best ever.
by Anonymous | reply 45 | July 7, 2023 4:28 AM |
I don't know why, R34, she wasn't really known for her interview skills. She was really just an anchor for most of her career, and had scant actual reporting experience.
She had a remarkable talent for reading news on camera in a studio full of crew members she could boss around and blame for everything, but she wasn't much of a journalist. She was from an era where women were just breaking into anchor roles and was hired more for her looks and speaking ability than for any kind of hard nosed journalism.
I doubt she would have been a very effective interviewer against 21st century Trump. Maybe a fluff piece with 80s era Ivana and The Donald but not a hardball interview with Cheetoh Hitler. Jessica would probably stroke out on camera from the stress and pre-game nose candy.
by Anonymous | reply 46 | July 7, 2023 4:40 AM |
R37 When she was a local journalist in Pennsylvania, she won an Emmy for an investigative report she did, so she had the skills and the potential. She was sidelined by drugs and alcohol and lost her way.
by Anonymous | reply 47 | July 7, 2023 11:38 AM |
Jessica Savitch was a brilliant newsreader, one of the best that ever was. She just shot through the camera. She was a great communicator.
Great journalist? No. She was a witty person and a good writer with potential, as R47 said, but mental illness and substance abuse dogged her to the point that there were stretches during her NBC years (after 1977) that she could barely function.
As R40 mentioned, she had a serious case of what we now call impostor syndrome. She couldn't get close to potential allies/friends in the business because she had no self-confidence and was afraid if she hung out with Ellerbee, Andrea Mitchell, Jane Pauley, they would see she was nothing.
But all those women came out after her death and expressed respect for her. Ellerbee—a brilliant writer but not a patch on Jessica in terms of newsreading—said she used to watch Jessica do Update in the studio and marvel at how good she was.
by Anonymous | reply 48 | July 7, 2023 12:05 PM |
Her Wiki entry is interesting, and reads like a movie script outline itself. It's a shame all the movies were 'loosely based' and 'inspired by'; this woman needs a real biopic.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 49 | July 7, 2023 1:00 PM |
Apparently she had horrible taste in men too. One of her boy friends allegedly abused her a lot and she kept going back to him. Hubby #2, a doctor, offed himself with her beloved dog's leash, tied around his neck, in the basement of their home. Poor dog , Chewy, wound up dying with her in that back seat because she insisted on taking him along on a first date.
She was also accused of "going Hollywood" after she "wrote" a book about the ups and downs of being a famous news reader.
by Anonymous | reply 50 | July 7, 2023 1:18 PM |
The idea that Jessica Savitch, a mean drunk/druggie and perennial fuck up on a steep downward career trajectory after coasting on her looks and paper-thin talent for reading stuff (and coasted right into a canal to her death) would've somehow survived that to go on to a stellar journalism career interviewing Presidents with hard-nosed moxie and incomparable competence, well, that's some potent DL fiction making there. You guys never disappoint.
by Anonymous | reply 51 | July 7, 2023 1:37 PM |
Oh hell, #51- it's not rocket science. I'm sure it used to be on-the-job training, and very few early reporters had a Masters in Broadcasting from Princeton.
The Wiki entry said she learned the ropes at KHOU and other venues. She wasn't Maria Shriver.
by Anonymous | reply 52 | July 7, 2023 2:37 PM |
She was nicknamed Jessica Savage. Any big reporting gig she got, like White House correspondent, she promptly lost because her reporting levels were so inept. The first time I remembered seeing her was when she hosted Tom Snyder's old show "Tomorrow" and I couldn't believe what a terrible interviewer she was. She had Madelyn Murray O'Hare on, the atheist cunt who was later murdered. O'Hare completely controlled the interview and you could see Savitch getting angrier and angrier and was totally unable to get anything out of the interview. I also saw her on this quiz type show where they assembled various news reporters to talk about current events. She invariably gave stupid and insipid answers. It was obvious that there was a very small window for her but she did her newsreading brilliantly. She could never have done something like Today or even have her own talk show. She would have been perfect for ET, had it existed.
There was a proposed movie on her to have been starring Sharon Gless. Gless said the scripts she got were all not very good and felt that Savitch should be allowed to RIP. Of course, there was another TV movie starring the badly miscast Sela Ward and the fictional bio starring Michelle Pfeiffer. Of course, DL'ers know the ideal casting would have been Jessica Lange.
by Anonymous | reply 53 | July 7, 2023 2:54 PM |
R53 The backstory on "Up Close and Personal," the alleged bio of Savitch, is fascinating on its own. The script was based on the Almost Golden biography, with emphasis on Savitch's destructive relationship with fellow journalist Ron Kershaw. The studio thought the original script was too depressing, so the whole movie was essentially rewritten to make it some kind of ridiculous love story with a fairy tale happy ending. In the end, it didn't remotely resemble anything about Savitch's real life.
by Anonymous | reply 54 | July 7, 2023 3:24 PM |
She was on local Philadelphia news before she went national. From what I can remember she was very highly thought of in the tri-state area.
by Anonymous | reply 55 | July 7, 2023 3:45 PM |
Local news is not prestigious or challenging, the stakes are obviously much lower, and the pool of talent is lower grade. It's not surprising that she shined on local news but she was still largely an anchor in a studio with only occasional field reports. Her one big gig from that era was posing undercover as a rape decoy for a story about sex crimes. Courageous and novel, sure, but gimmicky, and definitely not the kind of journalistic chops one brings to a big league network interview with a President or other national figures, and not the kind of thing that connects with viewers at the dinner table or over their morning coffee.
Whoever said she would have been great on ET was correct. Tabloid shows like Hard Copy could've been her eventual milieu too. Maybe an anchor gig in a huge market like NY, LA or Chicago. But not network anchor. She couldn't handle a news break!
by Anonymous | reply 56 | July 7, 2023 4:15 PM |
The 70s and 80s were weird times for women in news. They were breaking through but still expected to be sort of like the sweet weather girl. Ambition was not especially encouraged or rewarded.
So few came before them - you had someone like Marie Torre who was relegated to social society news for much of the early part of her career. Or Dorothy Fuldheim, who was already 50something when she started doing opinion pieces.
But getting in and reading and reporting news like the guys.....I think a lot of these women, local and national, were figuring it out as they went along. Including Savitch. And yes, the hard turn toward infotainment that really didn't exist prior to the 80s would have been a good spot for her.
by Anonymous | reply 57 | July 7, 2023 4:17 PM |
[quote]Local news is not prestigious or challenging, the stakes are obviously much lower, and the pool of talent is lower grade.
Depends on the market.
by Anonymous | reply 58 | July 7, 2023 4:50 PM |
I seem to recall reading, maybe here (probably here) that Christina Applegate and Will Farrell's characters in Anchorman were based on Savage and her co-anchor in Philly local news.
by Anonymous | reply 59 | July 7, 2023 5:58 PM |
I never watched her news reading in Philly. I couldn't bring myself to trust her co-news reader with a name like "Mort Crim!"
I was a long time watcher of the one and only Larry Kane on Ch6's Action News....dun dun dun dun dun dun...dun dun dun dun...dun duda duda dun!!
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 60 | July 7, 2023 9:31 PM |
And here I thought these old drunks were the inspiration for Anchorman.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 61 | July 7, 2023 10:14 PM |
Loved, loved, loved Jessica Savitch. 'Almost Golden' was a fascinating, ultimately tragic book. Her death was an enormous loss to broadcast journalism.
by Anonymous | reply 62 | July 7, 2023 10:24 PM |
The loss of Jessica Savitch still reverberates today.
by Anonymous | reply 63 | July 7, 2023 10:35 PM |
News reporting is a sink or swim business.
by Anonymous | reply 64 | July 7, 2023 11:21 PM |
[quote]The 80s were an abysmal decade for women's hairstyles. They were either like hers or perms.
All the women anchors had what we called "hair nests" — the hair by their ears was flipped, making a "nest" like Jessica in the first clip.
by Anonymous | reply 65 | July 7, 2023 11:23 PM |
Savitch had prominence and had been moving up before her personal issues became evident to viewers.
But R5, who then W&W'd herself like crazy, is an ass.
by Anonymous | reply 66 | July 7, 2023 11:25 PM |
[quote]I seem to recall reading, maybe here (probably here) that Christina Applegate and Will Farrell's characters in Anchorman were based on Savage and her co-anchor in Philly local news.
Surely some of the inspiration came from this ultra-1970s promo for "Catch 5" News with anchorman JOHN HAMBRICK and sports guy GIB SHANLEY.
"Ham brick" is SUCH a great name for a polyester stallion anchorman!
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 67 | July 7, 2023 11:26 PM |
We called anchorwoman hair like JS sported a "hair helmet."
by Anonymous | reply 68 | July 7, 2023 11:29 PM |
R60 - Larry Kane wasn’t on Channel 6 (the station with the catchy jingle).
by Anonymous | reply 69 | July 8, 2023 12:05 AM |
R67 Gotta love Dorothy Fuldheim and her red hair.
by Anonymous | reply 70 | July 8, 2023 12:06 AM |
Larry Kane was on WCAU Ch. 10, CBS affiliate originally. It later became an NBC affiliate, switching with Ch 3 KYW "Eyewitness news" which was Savitch and Crim's domain in the 70s. Jim Gardner was the anchor of Ch 6 WPVI's Action News on the ABC affiliate, a role he remained in until retiring last year.
by Anonymous | reply 72 | July 8, 2023 12:10 AM |
[quote]Depends on the market.
Not exactly. Larger markets have higher prestige and salaries, but a local anchor in New York is not higher or even equal prestige to a network anchor on the same channel. Yes Sue Simmons was beloved but she was no Tom Brokaw. The largest market Savitch worked in was Philly, which is a large market and a proving ground for the networks (a lot of talent passes through there on the way to NY) but Philly is not a high prestige gig in TV news.
by Anonymous | reply 74 | July 8, 2023 12:44 AM |
[quote]She could never have done something like Today or even have her own talk show.
Actually, Steve Friedman, the producer who took Today to #1 in the '80s, often brought her in to sub for Brokaw, Gumbel, and Pauley.
Brokaw didn't love her attitude—he called her a complainer in one of the biographies—but Friedman thought she was very strong with pop culture and ad-libbing and was good for the show.
by Anonymous | reply 75 | July 8, 2023 12:57 AM |
I didn't say that local anchors are on the same level as network anchors, but I do know that the networks use the major markets as something of a "farm team" when looking for people to elevate to the network. That's what I meant by "depends on the market". I dated a local reporter whose goal was to get to one of the top 5 markets.
by Anonymous | reply 76 | July 8, 2023 1:02 AM |
A couple observations:
Back when she first hit the scene, I thought Elizabeth Banks would have been great in the definitive Jessica Savitch biopic.
It took a while for Today to regain the ground it lost once Good Morning America caught on. Neither Jane Pauley nor Bryant Gumbel had an assured future on Today. The tide turned for both around 1983-84, but before then, folks like Jessica, Chris Wallace and Connie Chung were all talked about as possible replacement anchors.
I've long felt that if Jessica had been on the scene 10 years earlier, she'd have had Barbara Walters' career. Ten years later, Katie Couric's.
by Anonymous | reply 77 | July 8, 2023 1:43 AM |
R71. That was exactly the reaction I was hoping for. And I mean it (about Jessica, not you). Thank you, doll.
by Anonymous | reply 78 | July 8, 2023 2:05 AM |
From Larry Kane's bio on the net:
"Career in Philadelphia In 1965, he came to Philadelphia as an anchor for WFIL Radio and as main anchor for its sister station WFIL-TV, Philadelphia's ABC affiliate. Kane was later the primary anchor for the (then new) Action News format. WFIL-TV would change its call letters to WPVI-TV in 1971 after Capital Cities Communications purchased the station from Triangle Publications. Kane is credited with coining the phrase "The Big Story" at the top of Action News, something WPVI uses to this day. Kane would leave WPVI in 1977, in order to take daily limousine trips to New York City and join WABC-TV."
by Anonymous | reply 79 | July 8, 2023 3:19 AM |
I don't schee the problemm.
by Anonymous | reply 80 | July 8, 2023 3:28 AM |
All of the shit happening right now in the world, and what lures me in? An old fashioned flame war about the discernable talents of Jessica Savitch.
This is why I love DL.
by Anonymous | reply 81 | July 8, 2023 3:38 AM |
Mort Crim, the god of local news in Philadelphia and Detroit (who is still alive at 88) was very fond of her. He energetically defended her in the biographies and Lifetime special.
He and his wife brought Jessica out to Detroit and took care of her after her husband killed himself, and again after the Digest debacle. He gave the eulogy at her funeral.
Separately: Damn did they have some ugly news sets in the '70s. Carpet on the wall? I mean, really. This was the No. 4 news market, folks!!
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 82 | July 8, 2023 3:39 AM |
Like R5, I remember the hyperbolic lore over her slurry Digest. It was lost for years.
It was discussed endlessly during the publicity for the 1995 Sela Ward biopic. The producers searched and searched and couldn't find it, so Sela had to act the "meltdown" based on the Savitch biographies (which didn't describe it well at all).
Then suddenly, just before the movie aired, the clip was found! Just in time to stick it into the Lifetime Intimate Portrait. And it was nowhere near as dramatic as everyone had built it up to be. Sela got it completely wrong, but you can't really blame her.
by Anonymous | reply 83 | July 8, 2023 3:53 AM |
BTW, the biopic, Almost Golden, is one of the worst examples of production design I've ever seen. Nothing about it is believable as the '70s or '80s. It looked like it cost about $24.95.
I remember that to indicate one scene was set at NBC, they stuck a piece of white paper on a studio wall that said "NBC," not even trying to replicate the logo.
Sela Ward said she bleached her hair (and fried it off) to "commit" to the character of Jessica, but I think they just couldn't afford a decent wig.
by Anonymous | reply 84 | July 8, 2023 3:59 AM |
Mort Crim says he and Jessica screwed around while they were in Philadelphia. That was the big reveal in his book. Yet another old fossil cashing in on Jessica, giving it to her in the grave.
by Anonymous | reply 85 | July 8, 2023 4:03 AM |
Jessica Savitch had a very distinct style of speaking- I think she was influenced by Barbara Walters, but developed her own style based on it. Eventually EVERY female newscaster was sounding like Savitch. Jane Pauley on down. I even heard a tape of Robin Quivers from Howard Stern's DC 101 days circa 1980 sounding like her. And her influence lasted for years after she passed.
by Anonymous | reply 87 | July 8, 2023 4:09 AM |
In OP's clip, she looks like a woman in her mid 50s. She was 35 there.
by Anonymous | reply 88 | July 8, 2023 4:10 AM |
Yes, it's hard to believe she was only in her 30s, she looked a lot older.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 89 | July 8, 2023 4:22 AM |
Jane Pauley mimicked Barbara Walters and it's obvious in her first years on Today. In her Television Academy interview from a few years ago, Jane said that listening to herself from those early days makes her cringe—she was trying too hard.
Jessica Savitch's style was so fresh and direct. She had a unique energy that connected with the viewer. It's evident below.
The beginning of the end was when NBC hired her for her delivery and connection with the viewer, then told her they didn't like it. They tried to mold her into the "NBC style" of newsreading—staccato pacing with a Mid-Atlantic accent—which dated back to the radio days. It killed her confidence and started the spiral.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 90 | July 8, 2023 4:23 AM |
By today's standards it's kinda shocking how old she looked. Maybe she was trying to look older?
by Anonymous | reply 91 | July 8, 2023 4:23 AM |
You can see the difference in her delivery after just a year with the network:
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 92 | July 8, 2023 4:24 AM |
Her death was horrifying, that poor woman. Trapped inside a car as the water poured in, JFC I don't even want to think about it.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 93 | July 8, 2023 4:25 AM |
She did this thing with her T sounds. You can hear it when she says "Carter," she almost rolls them. I think Barbara Walters used to do it, but it was more pronounced with Savitch. And the seriousness of the delivery- hard to describe but very distinct and widely imitated.
by Anonymous | reply 94 | July 8, 2023 4:30 AM |
R93 I agree. Too awful to think about. Rest her soul. In October it will have been 40 years.
by Anonymous | reply 95 | July 8, 2023 4:33 AM |
What became 1996's "Up Close & Personal" was originally supposed to be the warts-and-all Jessica Savitch story—the "Star Is Born" of TV news. Written by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, who did Streisand's "Star Is Born."
After eight years of rewrites, Disney had changed it into a story where the Jessica Savitch character lives. And Didion and Dunne were just staying with the project so they could have health insurance.
I would love to get my hands on the Didion/Dunne first draft of the Jessica Savitch story.
by Anonymous | reply 96 | July 8, 2023 4:54 AM |
I still remember her last words.... "Splash..."
by Anonymous | reply 97 | July 8, 2023 2:52 PM |
R79 - Thank you, I stand corrected. I only remember Kane being on the CBS affiliate (Channel 10) which then became an NBC affiliate when I was growing up. I had no idea he’d been on Channel 6.
by Anonymous | reply 98 | July 8, 2023 3:01 PM |
R97 - I wonder how much of a splash there was — that canal had very little water in it from what I remember.
by Anonymous | reply 99 | July 8, 2023 3:02 PM |
R99 here — corrected again — looks like there was heavy rain the night the car Savitch was in flipped into the drink.
by Anonymous | reply 100 | July 8, 2023 3:03 PM |
Could her speaking style be described as a Mid-Atlantic accent, or an attempt at one? It sounds a bit old fashioned and brittle. I'm reminded of Lauren Bacall and those grating coffee commercials she did around this same time.
She doesn't sound like someone who grew up in Atlantic City. A different "Mid-Atlantic," huh.
by Anonymous | reply 101 | July 8, 2023 3:12 PM |
Anyone who thinks Jessica Savitch wouldn’t have succeeded in a major and enduring way, due to intellectual shortcomings, clearly hasn’t heard of Lesley Stahl, the dumbest human being in network news, for 40 years and counting.
by Anonymous | reply 103 | July 8, 2023 4:17 PM |
R27 you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Linda Ellerbe’s tombstone will say one thing and one thing only: “And so it goes”
by Anonymous | reply 104 | July 8, 2023 4:24 PM |
R101 - That’s probably what she was going for. It’s a made up accent.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 105 | July 8, 2023 4:35 PM |
R103 Fuck you! I'm even more incompetent!
by Anonymous | reply 106 | July 8, 2023 4:38 PM |
*smacks head* Duh! Mea culpa, R104
by Anonymous | reply 107 | July 8, 2023 4:39 PM |
She showed another side of herself on Letterman. Dave was somewhat taken with her.
by Anonymous | reply 108 | July 8, 2023 4:44 PM |
R105 no…tv anchors were never taught mid-Atlantic…that was for movie actors of early generations. Tv anchors were taught to speak as if they came from nowhere (flat, unaccented “California style”). Or they were allowed to just tone down their own regionalism to a degree. Sports reporters and commentators could keep it as is.
by Anonymous | reply 110 | July 8, 2023 5:16 PM |
R101 you are a Philistine! Also, you can suck my dick!
by Anonymous | reply 111 | July 8, 2023 6:10 PM |
Incorrect, R110.
For decades, NBC anchors were taught to speak in the Mid-Atlantic style, and there was still a push for it when Jessica Savitch came to the network.
Some anchors and reporters had enough confidence to say, fuck you, I'm going to speak how I speak. Jessica did not.
NBC even produced a pronunciation book, and you can see how its entry for "New York" (New-YAWRK) led to the mid-Atlantic dropped R.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 112 | July 9, 2023 8:53 AM |
The NBC pronunciation book:
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 113 | July 9, 2023 8:55 AM |
The NBC Pronunciation Book:
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 114 | July 9, 2023 8:56 AM |
R112 you are mis-using “Mid-Atlantic.” Done and done.
by Anonymous | reply 116 | July 9, 2023 9:07 AM |
I am not, R116. And this is really not debatable. If you read the Savitch biographies, you would know that NBC pressured its talent to use the made-up "Mid-Atlantic" accent, even through Savitch's era. It's well-documented. Anchors and producers who were there at the time called it the "NBC Mid-Atlantic accent."
by Anonymous | reply 117 | July 9, 2023 9:12 AM |
Keep on truckin’. You may eventually get somewhere R112et al. 😵💫
by Anonymous | reply 118 | July 9, 2023 10:26 AM |
Too funny: a Google search for Mid-Atlantic and Jessica Savitch and the only result is Datalounge…dizzy queens unite!
by Anonymous | reply 119 | July 9, 2023 10:31 AM |
[quote]All of the shit happening right now in the world, and what lures me in? An old fashioned flame war about the discernable talents of Jessica Savitch. This is why I love DL.
Then you should love the fact that it's "old-fashioned" and "discernible." Plus "discernible" with any meaning is poorly placed as an adjective here, if one is attempting to deliver meaning and not looking to sound smart.
Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear.
by Anonymous | reply 120 | July 9, 2023 2:48 PM |
Girls! Girls! You're ALL fat, pedantic cunts!
by Anonymous | reply 121 | July 9, 2023 2:55 PM |
Good lord, can you imagine Charlotte Rae delivering the news every night?
by Anonymous | reply 122 | July 9, 2023 3:07 PM |
r122 Why yes, yes I can.
And for serious events, Tootie can roll out onto the news set, look at the camera and say "We got some trouble....looks like a double!"
by Anonymous | reply 123 | July 9, 2023 3:09 PM |
I seem to recall there was a second Savitch biography titled Golden Girl, is this book not considered as good as Almost Golden? Boy they really liked hitting the 'gold' metaphor hard with Savtich, didn't they?
by Anonymous | reply 124 | July 9, 2023 3:18 PM |
That pronunciation guide does not support your silly argument: the entry for New York clearly has an R In it….and if you think dropping the R in the word YoRK is a primary example of Mid-Atlantic speech then I’ve got a transatlantic crossing for you—the iceberg is free of charge.
by Anonymous | reply 125 | July 9, 2023 3:19 PM |
Didn't she star in that movie "A River Runs Through It"?
by Anonymous | reply 126 | July 9, 2023 3:51 PM |
"And now for a story with FLAVAH ... deep, rich FLAVAH .... "
by Anonymous | reply 128 | July 9, 2023 9:41 PM |
Fucking people worry too fucking much about the word fuck.
by Anonymous | reply 129 | July 9, 2023 9:44 PM |
Jessica Savitch had the best delivery ever. And she didn't have that dreadful mid-Atlantic accent.
by Anonymous | reply 130 | July 9, 2023 11:31 PM |
Two Jessica Savitch biographies came out in the same year: 1988.
The first, Almost Golden, was written by Alanna Nash, a biographer who had previously written a best-selling Dolly Parton bio. The Savitch family sanctioned it. They even gave Nash some personal items of Jessica's, IIRC.
The second, Golden Girl: Jessica Savitch and the Selling of Television News, was written by Gwenda Blair, a reporter for Mother Jones. Lori Savitch criticized it and went on air accusing Blair of trying to make money off the bones of her dead sister, or something melodramatic.
The two books are indistinguishable in my mind; I don't remember either one particularly pulling punches.
by Anonymous | reply 131 | July 10, 2023 6:00 AM |
The Gwenda Blair book was considered much better written and more objective. The Nash bio was not but I believe a lot of that came from the idea that Nash was a country western writer. I read them both and I agree, they seemed to cover the same stories and bases.
by Anonymous | reply 132 | July 10, 2023 6:06 AM |
Wow, did they have the balls to run an intro to Eyewitness News featuring Savitch's replacement on her last broadcast?
Look at R90, 1:21 — the blonde woman looks like Diane Allen, Jessica's replacement.
(Who later became an NJ state senator and quite fat.)
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 133 | July 10, 2023 6:23 AM |
R109 backs up a criticism some family members and co-workers had of the biographies and TV specials about Jessica. They said she had a great sense of humor, particularly about herself, and was kind and generous, which wasn't reflected in the reporting.
It's revealing that she went on Letterman in his first year and clearly came with her own bits, one of which got applause from the studio audience. She's terrific. You can't watch that and say this person wouldn't have been offered her own talk show or some kind of continuing TV presence through the '80s.
by Anonymous | reply 134 | July 10, 2023 6:54 AM |
"DL'ers know the ideal casting would have been Jessica Lange."
Nah. Holly Hunter, Jodie Foster, Amy Madigan, Ellen Barkin... but not the irritating Lange.
by Anonymous | reply 135 | July 10, 2023 9:39 AM |
R134 ...except for the cocaine and alcohol addiction.
by Anonymous | reply 136 | July 10, 2023 11:27 AM |
John Daly, of ABC News and What's My Line? had a very pronounced Mid-Atlantic accent when WML? began in 1950. But he gradually lost it by 1967 when the show went off the air.
by Anonymous | reply 137 | July 10, 2023 11:57 AM |
Martha Raddatz reminds me of Jessica.
by Anonymous | reply 138 | July 10, 2023 1:16 PM |
R133 - Diane Allen has two different colored eyes.
by Anonymous | reply 139 | July 10, 2023 4:16 PM |
Jessica Savitch would be 76 years old if she were still alive.
by Anonymous | reply 140 | July 11, 2023 6:22 PM |
^^ Jessica Savitch is forever young.
by Anonymous | reply 141 | July 11, 2023 8:03 PM |
^^Jessica Savitch is forever dead.
by Anonymous | reply 142 | July 11, 2023 8:05 PM |
She was the original host for Frontline:
"The program debuted in 1983, with NBC anchorwoman Jessica Savitch as the show's first host, but Savitch died later after the first-season finale. PBS NewsHour's Judy Woodruff took over as host in 1984, and hosted the program for five years, combining her job with a sub-anchor place on The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour when Jim Lehrer was away. In 1990, episodes of Frontline began airing without a host, and the narrator was left to introduce each episode."
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 144 | July 12, 2023 4:29 AM |
Jessica Savitch is ageless, and was the original inspiration for "Lady in the Water".
by Anonymous | reply 145 | July 12, 2023 1:10 PM |
R144 It's hard to believe she was only 36 in that clip. Although she was attractive, she looked at least 10 years older.
by Anonymous | reply 146 | July 12, 2023 2:49 PM |
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