Bryant Gumbel, Jane Pauley return to 'Today'

[alp227]

Many of the "Today" show's core anchors were off for the holidays Monday, so NBC called in two veterans to join Matt Lauer on his birthday. Former "Today" anchors Bryant Gumbel and Jane Pauley returned for a one-day-only tour of duty in an effort to help viewers recall the days when "Today" was the top-rated morning show.

Pauley left the show in 1989; Gumbel departed in 1997. As weatherman Al Roker, by remote in California, joked, "I understand Gene Shalit's standing by to review 'Back to the Future.'"

Lauer turned 56 on Monday and Gumbel, who currently hosts "Real Sports" on HBO, led the birthday boy through a series of well-wishes from Roker, the vacationing Savannah Guthrie, former co-anchor Meredith Viera and even cake from Pauley's 30-year-old twins, who have never been seen on "Today" before now.

Full: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-bryant-gumbel-jane-pauley-return-to-today-20131230,0,4410436.story

You can tell that Gumbel was the Martin Bashir of the '80s and '90s. He P.O.'d conservatives, as the Media Research Center has an entire dossier of "liberal bias" from Gumbel.

For instance the MRC has this article " Gumbel: America is Hopelessly Racist". Translated: He dared tell the inconvenient truth about race in America. Back in '89 Gumbel hosted a primetime special "The R.A.C.E. (Racial Attitudes and Consciousness Exam)", as the NY Times described it:

''The RACE,'' which occupied two hours on NBC Tuesday and Wednesday nights, injected elements of a game show and a celebrity hunt into its poll of Americans' feelings about race. The acronym stands for Racial Attitudes and Consciousness Exam. It was given by Bryant Gumbel to groups of about 80 people of assorted races, sexes and ages, gathered in New York, Los Angeles, Milwaukee and Jackson, Miss., who used little handsets to register their approval or disapproval of activities like interracial dating. Viewers were invited to play along.

The test was given on Tuesday, and a few of the results were reported on Wednesday. The questions, about racial quotas, integrated schools and neighborhoods, crime and discrimination of various sorts, were mostly well chosen and sensibly arranged by a couple of men from the National Opinion Research Center, and the subject could hardly have been more timely, especially to New Yorkers. The show forced viewers to think about their own attitudes, which Mr. Gumbel did not fail to note in a self-congratulatory afterword.

And then there's a bunch of quotes showing how Gumbel dared report on the dark side of the Reagan years.

But then again Gumbel was anchoring the Today show from 1982 to 1997, when TV news actually tried to be news. (During that era, the Fairness Doctrine was abolished in 1987, and corporate ownership of the media was deregulated in 1996 after President Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act.)

[Chakab]

1. Who watches morning shows in this day and age? Everytime that I'm subjected to the feigned

cheer and inane babble on one of those shows, I feel the urge to slam my head into my coffee table.

[alp227]

3. I've heard that morning TV is aimed towards women since they're most likely to stay at home.

But now that more women are in the workforce, and on-demand media is becoming more popular than broadcast, you're right that the audience for such shows is declining. I prefer NPR in the morning.

[doc03]

5. You don't watch Morning Joe?

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. i had wondered about jane pauley, what had happened to her career

Isn't she married to the Doonesbury guy?

[alp227]

4. Yes they've been married since 1980 nt

[CTyankee]

6. She has bipolar disorder and had a rough time for a while.

I don't know how she is doing now, but I can only feel just terrible for her.

I had a boss who was bipolar and I ended up having to leave my job. At the time I didn't know she was bipolar but I did wonder why she could be so warm and charming at one time and just the opposite at another. I felt confused and hopeless. Later, when I found out about her disability I felt sorry for her and wished her well...

[Liberal_in_LA]

7. i had no idea. thanks for the info