Go 4 It! Bless You Boys. Count Scary. Bowling For Dollars.
These are just a few of the memories you’ll enjoy when you watch (and DVR) our primetime 75th anniversary special TONIGHT at 9pm on Local 4 and Local 4+. We’re gonna circle back to that in a moment but let’s set the stage.
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There’s a scene at the beginning of the 1996 Jim Carrey dark comedy The Cable Guy. It shows a little boy plunked down in front of the TV and just left there to absorb the blue glow of what some people used to call the idiot box or the boob tube. It’s clear this magical appliance is going to be the boy’s substitute parent, sibling, friend and babysitter all in one.
That was me in the 1970s and early 80s.
Not as dark, obviously. I mean I grew up and did not become the sociopath Carrey plays. At least I don’t think so. Do sociopaths know they are sociopaths?
Anyway, I spent hours, days, weeks, months and years parked in front of our family room TV and starting at age 9 in my room with the COLOR television my grandparents gave me as a present.
I was 8 when Mort Crim came to town to battle Bill Bonds for ratings supremacy at a time when cable wasn’t yet common. Hence, local newscasts did Super Bowl ratings every night. And I was definitely tuned in.
Even as an elementary age kid I was watching Mort Crim and Carman Harlan. Sony Elliot. Al Ackerman. Eli Zaret. Dwayne X. Riley with Riley’s World. Davy Marlin-Jones. Mal Sillars. Count Scary (who recently sent me an autographed promo photo, which is on my desk at the station).
I watched Bowling 4 Dollars with my family. Tigers baseball broadcasts with George Kell and Al Kaline, too. Sparky and Al. And of course we had to watch for Grandma Carr’s precious lottery numbers.
Also 4 was NBC and NBC had AFC football, Must See TV, The Today Show, the Nightly News with Roger Mudd and Tom Brokaw, The Tonight Show, the Major League Baseball Game of the Week with Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola (Steve’s dad), Saturday morning cartoons, NBC movie of the week, The Baseball Bunch, and the Wonderful World of Disney.
By the way I’m writing this blog entirely off the top of my head. And I could do it for those other stations in Detroit as well but we’re not hear to talk about them, are we?
So tonight please watch “Going 4 It: The Inside Story of the Rise of WDIV” and feel the warm fuzz of a static-free trip down memory lane. I know I’ll be parked in front of my TV just like I was 50 years ago.
Watch Jason Carr Live, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 9:45 a.m., streaming live on Local 4+ and ClickOnDetroit.