Jerry Dunphy
Encyclopedia : J : JE : JER : Jerry Dunphy
Jerry Dunphy (June 9, 1921-May 20, 2002) was a legendary television news anchor in the Los Angeles area. He was best known for his catchy intro "From the desert to the sea, to all of Southern California, a good evening." He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
After distinguishing himself as a pilot in World War II, Dunphy began his television career in 1953, eventually taking the anchor chair in 1960 at the Los Angeles CBS O&O KNXT (now KCBS-TV), where he anchored Los Angeles' most popular newscast "The Big News." He was fired in 1975, when KNXT dropped the Big News in favor of a newscast similar to the popular Eyewitness News format on KABC-TV. It was then when, Jerry joined KABC-TV, bringing it to the top of the ratings, making it Southern California's news leader. Since Dunphy's firing, Channel 2 has never recovered in the ratings. Dunphy left KABC-TV in the late 1980's and joined the upstart KCAL-TV as one of the pioneering anchors of the three-hour primetime news format, "Prime 9 News". He returned to KCBS-TV as an anchorman, and rejoined KCAL-TV in 1997, where he remained until his death.
Famous for beginning his broadcasts with the words "From the desert to the sea to all of Southern California, a good evening," he was one of the first newscasters to interview President Richard Nixon after his resignation in 1974. He would later sit down with Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, and Gerald Ford. Dunphy also performed regular cameos in L.A.-based films including Oh God! (1977), Short Cuts (1993), and Independence Day (1996), and is widely considered the inspiration for the characters of Ted Baxter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Kent Brockman on The Simpsons.
Dunphy was attacked and shot by would-be robbers in 1983, but soon after made a full recovery.
Although he had suffered two previous heart attacks in 1978 and 1991, he had been in good health and had even anchored broadcasts the week before he succumbed to a heart attack on May 20, 2002. He suffered this heart attack on his way to work.
Dunphy was also a songwriter. One of his songs was called, appropriately, "From the Desert to the Sea" and was recorded by country music star Tom T. Hall.
When KCBS-TV/KCAL-TV moves to the CBS Studio Center in 2006, a broadcast studio will be named in his honor.
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.