Opening Day = Drinking + Lightning?
WGN Morning News team has A LOT of fun on Opening Day. Especially Robin and Dean.
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WGN Morning News team has A LOT of fun on Opening Day. Especially Robin and Dean.
Paul was off today because his wife, Pickles, gave birth.
Paul has been pitching names to honor his Austrian heritage: Gretl, Shtupgardt; Heimyenkle; Sazzifrazz; Zima.
Find out Monday when his new child makes their TV debut at 8.
I came to WGN TV in 1994 and Randy Salerno sat me down, and shared valuable advice with me about the station, and working in Chicago. While Randy was an accomplished journalist, it is this selfless act of friendship that I will remember most.
After he left WGN, we were all still in contact with Randy. Paul and I went golfing with him and he had us laughing throughout the day.
It is awkward to be reporting his death, and yet because of his smart sense of humor, we also celebrate his life.
Our thoughts go out to his family and friends.
We'll miss him.
We invite you to share your thoughts of Randy Salerno.
We heard the The Today Show did some lame version of our Friday Dance today. Stations across the country have been stealing the idea. We've been doing it for about ten years now. I can't imagine The Today Show's version was any good----I mean, what kind of "highlights" could they possibly have? Their idea of "crazy" is wearing a wig on Halloween.
I give them credit for trying to spice up their predictable show but they just don't do or say the things that we do at WGN that make the Friday Dance what it is.
Our phone lines were jammed this morning with people complaining about the two women who were on at 6:50am talking about "how to get a raise" at work. No one really complained about the content. They were upset because the women looked like they just got out of bed and their hair was a mess. To be honest, I thought it was some edgy New York hairstyle and didn't want to insult them by handing them a hairbrush.
We just caught the tail end of Sylvester Stallone's tirade at his satellite location for having such a dumpy satellite studio. When he realized he was on the air with us, he recovered well. He's pretty self-depricating so we like him. He's been in studio before and he's always a gracious guest.
Charlie Murphy (Eddie Murphy's brother) has been on our show too, but this time he was flat.
He clearly didn't want to talk about the "True Hollywood Stories" that made him famous.
Sometimes these comedians come on and they think it is an interview about them, when all anyone really wants is for them to be funny.
As you know, our show is creative and often we are producing elements of the show while we're on the air. That means our conversations are quite different than the ones Charlie Gibson has with his staff.
Here are the top three quotes heard behind the scenes at WGN Morning News this week:
1/ "And then you want me to pull his pants down?"
2/ "Are you going with the usual wig?"
3/"We’ll take a chance on Miss Piggy, but not the cartoon M&M."
When I was first pitched Mitchel Musso as a guest for our morning show, I had to pinch myself. I had to put the PR rep on hold and catch my breath.
Oh, and more importantly, ask everyone in the newsroom if they knew what the hell a Mitchel Musso is.
I mean, it had to be somebody BIG because it only uses one "L" in the first name.
Then, the PR representative on the phone went on to tell me that Mitchel Musso was an actor and he is "Oliver Oken," one of the stars of Disney's mega-hit televison series "Hannah Montana."
Well, that about did me in. I almost fainted. You see, even though I don't have kids or even like them that much, I hear that this show is probably the most incredible phenomenon since "Punky Brewster."
Well, Mitchel could not have been nicer. He shook hands. He took pics with our camera people and their kids. Holy crap! He should run for President!
But, he's 14.
I mean, after the interview, we jokingly told him that he was one of the best guests we've had since Henry Kissinger was on our show. He tilted his bewildered head like a Shitzu. I think he thought that Henry Kissinger was a rapper from the 80's.
But still, he's a very talented kid and he's lucky enough to be a part of one of the greatest shows on Earth.
Just like me. I am going to puke now.
Check him out at the Hollywood Blvd Cinema in Woodridge today! Click on www.atriptothemovies.com for details on how to win tickets to tomorrow night's "Hannah Montana" show.
-Jeff Hoover, Morning Show Producer
In 1974, everybody wanted to be the Fonz. He got all of the girls. He could hit a jukebox and it would play songs for nothing. He'd slick his hair and stick out the thumb and say "aye."
Well, not me. I wanted to be Potsie. C'mon, he got to sing. I always thought he was under the radar with his coolness.
Fast forward to now, 30 something years later to today.
Anson "Potsie" Williams was on the morning show to perform "Splish Splash."
Why? Because I asked him to. Now, that's cool to me.
I mean, what do you think Henry "Fonzie" Winkler would say if I asked him to wear a leather coat on our show?
He'd tell me to sit on it.
Anyway, this morning, Potsie brought back a lot of great memories for us. He may not be as cool as Arthur Fonzarelli to you, but at least he's not Ralph Malph. Whoa!
To find out what Anson Williams is up to now days. Check out www.starmakerproducts.com
--Producer Jeff Hoover
It's not an all-star break but it is an All Star Weekend in Chicago . Some of the best-of-the-best NBA superstars will be converging on the city this month as the highly-anticipated Chicagoland All-Star Classic basketball game returns for its 6th anniversary year.
A virtual Who's Who of the basketball worlds' elite current and past performers, such as greats Antoine Walker, Corey Maggette, Michael Finley, Dwayne Wade, Antoine Walker, Juwan Howard, Quinton Richardson, Shawn Marion, Bobby Simmons, Nazr Muhammad, Sam Cassell, Steve Francis, Josh Smith, Stephon Marbury have participated and are invited again this year.
The 2006 classic tips-off at 4:00 p.m. Sunday, August 12th at the United Center , 1901 W. Madison St . And, best of all, it's all for charity with hosts The Support Group and Antoine Walker's 8 Foundation the beneficiaries.
With the recent shooting of school age children the event this year will hold a special "Silence the Violence" Teen Summit on Friday, August 10 @ 9:00am - 1:00pm at Julian High School . Other highlights not to be missed are performances by the new ABA Chicago Rockets Cheerleaders, local mascots "Benny the Bull" and "Chicago Sky," plus several Chicago-area acrobatic teams and dance troupes.
Cleveland Cavaliers guard Shannon Brown (a Maywood native) stopped by to talk about the game.
For more information, log onto:
http://www.thesupportgroup.org
Unless you've been to one, you really can't describe a WORLD STAGE event. Every concertgoer anticipates those rare moments when a guest star "drops in" and provides a chance to see and hear artists play together who might not normally share the stage at the same time. Imagine a whole concert like that…
Well, this morning, singer/songwriter Jim Peterik (IDES OF MARCH, SURVIVOR) and singer/songwriter Kelly Keagy (NIGHT RANGER) gave our viewers a taste of that…with the equally talented assistance of Mike Aquino ( on mandolin) and singer Lisa McClowry.
Here they are after the show giving us a special web exclusive performance off of Kelly Keagy's new solo album called "I'm Alive." It drops, as the kids say, on August 17th. This song called "A Life Worth Remembering" was written by Kelly and Jim Peterik. For more information on both of these great artists and about Jim Peterik's World Stage 2007, go to www.jimpeterik.com or www.myspace.com/kellykeagy
-- Jeff Hoover, producer
Looking at this photo it would be easy to think that this was just another comedy bit acted out by our behind-the-scenes folks that grabbed some costumes out of the old Bozo closet. Nope. Actually that might have been better than these clowns that call themselves "Happenin' Harry and the Haptones."
If you saw them, I think you'll agree on this. They weren't Happenin.' But, they were hairy.
These tattoo-ed, body pierced, tartar-toothed pirates are a part of an oddball cast of rockers from bands such as Guns N' Roses, Train, Brides of Destruction, Speedbuggy and several other groups that you've never heard of before. Well, they had me at Guns N' Roses. Unfortunately, Dizzy didn't show up. He was "not feeling well and needed his sleep." OK. Well, at least we had Charlie from Train. He's the one in the red T-shirt. According to some of the ladies around here, he is the hunky one. I would say he was the least likely to vomit this morning.
I'm sorry if I sound a little feisty, but when an "all-star band" shows up half in the bag and blows a great opportunity to perform on Chicago's #1 morning news show, it gets to me.
I mean, I turn away so many incredibly talented local bands on a daily basis because we try hard to deliver the big name music acts.
(Don't get me wrong, I'll welcome a midget Kiss tribute band; a gay heavy metal band; and a slobbering 2 yr-old drummer any old day of the week.)
Speaking of talented local bands, I guess I should come clean and tell you the real reason that Happenin' Harry got on our show in the first place.
You see, one of our premiere audio technicians, Lothar, is in a local band called Sacred Dawn. They will be opening for them Thursday night at Leo's Bar & Grill in Romeoville. For more information about Lothar (and to see if that is his real name at least), go to www.sacreddawn.com
For more information on Happenin' Harry and the Haptones, you are on your own. Sorry.
-Jeff Hoover, Morning Show Producer
The Russell Simmons interview just might've been one of the most bizarre situations we have ever had on WGN Morning News. Well, the dancing cockroach brothers in '95 were weird, but today wasn't "weird-funny," just "weird-awkward."
Apparently, Russell is tired of talking about racist lyrics and Don Imus. But this being a news program, Robin asked our first question about racist lyrics, and Simmons immediatley turned on us, and accused us of "co-opting" the interview, which was "booked on the premise that we'd talk about my book." Simmons then refused to look at Robin and me, and instead directed a long speech to Dean.
Simmons' approach actually backfired. In his frustration, he tailspinned back to answer the initial question about racism which ultimately left him very little time to talk about his book. The kicker here is that his book is about ways to find inner-happiness. Maybe he needs to reread it.
After the interview, he fumed more. He started to say "Well I had brought these gifts, but..." and as he picked up the bracelets and started to walk away, I think the light-bulb went off that said "Oh yeah--I just wrote a book about being spiritual and happy---and this all looks bad."
As he stepped back and presented the bracelets to us, Robin chided him for not looking at her through the entire interview, and Simmons sort of played dumb.
When he finally stepped off the set, I explained to him that our intention was to ask about the news element--- racism---and get it out of the way, so we could talk about other things. He started to backpeddle a bit, and blamed his PR people. What his PR people should've told him was to hold of on the book tour until the post-Imus thing died down. I guess he failed Simmons Law #6 (p143) "Surround Yourself With the Right People."
What we didn't get to in the interview is that SImmons is a proponent of Yoga. Page 71, he writes, "Meditation can help bring you back to a place that you probably forgot even existed. A place where you will know the right choice to make in every situation. A place where you can be in control of your emotions and ignore the distractions that keep you from focusing on what's really important."
Maybe all that sitting in silence caused his inner Ying or Yang to explode. All of the book's quotes from Ghandi about peace and love are fine, but it's all hard to take seriously when the author is cussing on two phones at the same time, and text-messaging his empire, instead of focusing on the people sitting right in front of him.
In conjunction with my Red Eye column Friday, I spoke with John Kemp, who is a real life make-believe Pilgrim from Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth Massachusetts.
Why do we have such a sanitized perception of the Pilgrims?
The "Pilgrim Story" has evolved over more than two hundred years--generally with a lot of idealizing (perhaps more than sanitizing). Sixty years ago, George Willison's Saints and Strangers stirred up at least as much controversy as Philbrick has this year.
Going back to the 18th century, back to the beginning both of this country and of the popularized Pilgrim Story, the "founding fathers" of our American Revolution saw the Pilgrims as "forefathers" in their own democratic image. Somehow, the voices of loyalist or Tory Mayflower descendants (many of whom fled to Nova Scotia or back to England) were drowned out--though they were much closer to voices heard in Plymouth during the 1620s. Then, in succeeding generations, great Victorians of the romantic age like Daniel Webster, Abraham Lincoln, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow popularized the Pilgrims as right-minded, patriotic, romantically virtuous and appealing. Professor John Seelye, in his Memory's Nation: the Place of Plymouth Rock, quotes the young Ralph Waldo Emerson kneeling on Plymouth Rock in 1834, where he "felt that it was grown more important by the growth of this nation." And Seelye gives many other examples of the growing sacramental power of Plymouth's rock. What mattered was the transcendental meaning of the Pilgrims, not who the colonists actually were or what they might have thought of latter-day pilgrimages. Making a shrine of Plymouth Rock? What would any good Calvinist think? (And with the post-Civil War erection of a pagan Greco-Roman temple over The Rock, we might wonder how the RPM's have increased as poor William Bradford spins in his grave.)
In the 20th century, between Madison Avenue, Hollywood, and the tendency toward video simplification, the stereotypical Pilgrim has become increasingly familiar--until every other generation or so, a Philbrick or a Willison breaks through with a new vision of the Plymouth's "Old Colony"--as it really was.
The Pilgrims landed in power struggle.... what was the struggle, and how did Chief Massasoit manipulate the Pilgrims to his advantage? What was the result?
There has been much speculation (based on colonial sources) about rivalry between the Wampanoag and the Narragansett. This speculation has led to a theory that Massasoit was trying to exploit an alliance with the English in order to strengthen his own authority. However, the bias of colonial sources makes speculation about Wampanoag motives highly unreliable.
Is there anything the Pilgrims did that can make us truly thankful?
In early Plymouth Colony, a Thanksgiving was observed as a day of worship, a Holy Day. The Wampanoag held a similar respect for the sacredness of Thanksgiving observances. As Philbrick and Willison (and many other historians) have pointed out, both the colonists and the Wampanoag were far more complex than the familiar stereotypes. Yet if these two different cultures share attitudes towards thanksgiving that contrast with our own, then perhaps they can help us to reconsider our values and customs; and by this reconsideration, we may strengthen our own way of living and thanksgiving.
Those of us who truly love freedom can be grateful that the Pilgrim became a powerful symbol during the American Revolution, helping to define an inspiring national identity and strengthening the resolve of struggling patriots. Similarly, those who are grateful for the abolition of American slavery should recognize that Daniel Webster was not alone in finding Pilgrim inspiration for the first beginnings of Abolitionism and for the far greater sufferings and sacrifices of the Civil War.