Ted Koppel -- We Hardly Knew Ye (NRR)
Sun_Fortune
1,374 Posts
Appreciation for one of my not so secret obsessions. He went out with a bang last night. Let's hope that he gets another chance somewhere. In the words of KRS-1, I'll miss you David Koppel. 
Comments
That's our report for tonight...I'm Ted Koppel in Washington..."
Is that really what he said? If so thats great and I should have stayed up and watched.
"There's this quiz I give to some of our young interns when they first arrive at Nightline. I didn't do it with this last batch. It's a little too close to home. "How many of you," I'll ask, "Can tell me anything about Eric Severeid?" Blank stares. "How about Howard K. Smith or Frank Reynolds?" Not a twitch of recognition.
Chet Huntley, Jack Chancellor? Still nothing. David Brinkley sometimes causes a hand or two to be raised; and Walter Cronkite may be glad to learn that a lot of young people still have a vague recollection that he once worked in television news.
What none of these young men and women in their late teens and early twenties appreciates, until I point it out to them, is that they have just heard the names of seven anchormen or commentators who were once so famous that everybody in the country knew their names. Everybody.
Trust me. The transition from one anchor to another is not that big a deal.
Cronkite begat Rather, Chancellor begat Brokaw, Reynolds begat Jennings; and each of them did a pretty fair job in his own right.
You've always been very nice to me. Give this new Nightline anchor team a fair break. If you don't, I promise you the network will just put another comedy show in this time slot. Then you'll be sorry.
That's our report for tonight...I'm Ted Koppel in Washington...
For all of us here at ABC News... Good night."
Pow. Right in the kisser.
And Millard Fillmore begat Abraham Lincoln, but you don't see George Bush whining about how nobody but Fillmore's biographer knows who the fuck he is.
- spidey
Who was talking about whether he was classy or not? Dumb on your part.
yep. just you.
i'm old enough to remember the pre-nightline title of his lil ol hatchet job
"america held hostage"
real bs playing on the nations frustration over the iranian embassy takeover
i blame him for turning public opinion against prez carter
(honest dude trying to straighten out nixon/ford bs)
& getting bonzo's buddy ronnie elected (thanks, not)
8 years of doom followed by 4 more with oldman bush
never thought we'd have such a bad run again,
untill the great 2000
presidential rip off
so,
yeah he may have mellowed & done much good
(reading the us casuality list in iraq, etc)
but i recall how he got there
& it makes me want to puke
any other "america held hostage day #--" haters out there ?
I think the point your missing is, he was not talking about just regular people. He was talking about people in the news industry. I mean... Ur into music right? How many musicians that are long gone, that you still talk about and respect? Should be the same for anyone that wants to be a news anchor. Should be the same for most things. It doesn't happen, but it should...
I was watching some rookie hockey playing last night. And they asked him who he looked up to and wanted to be like in the league. His answer? Bobby Orr. Dude hasn't played a pro game in 30 years. But still people respect him like crazy.
How can you one day be one of the greats, if you don't know anything about the great ones that came before you?
I could see it now... "Hi, I'm into Jazz and play a mean trumpet!" "Oh, so do you like Miles?" "Miles who???"
Yeah...
In the case of being in the field I could see where newsanchors would be expected to know a but more on the subject than your average guy.
My point was actually one supporting your Bobby Orr story - if they were really THAT great people WOULD remember them. People remember Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, etc. and it's been decades. You can't force people to remember people; it ust happens. Sure, I would expect someone in a certain field to recognize people that were a bit less... well, memorable, but I get annoyed when people that specialize in a field or topic expect EVERYone to know every individual bit player or tiny speck of trivia.
And Miles really WAS great, and people remember him.