I’ll be brief.

Tonight, “The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” changed the news program’s opening; the graphics were the same but the voice was different.

The network’s most celebrated anchor (even more than Edward R. Murrow) Walter Cronkite had introduced the network’s flagship broadcast since it began in September of 2006. It was a masterful piece of casting.

Tonight, CBS News President Sean McManus and Executive Producer Rick Kaplan used a new voice to introduce the program, actor Morgan Freeman.

Here is the audio for the new introduction.

Mr. Freeman did a passable job as an announcer and it’s said he’ll voice other CBS News programs as well, adding unity and flexibility to many CBS News broadcasts.

But Freeman is not Walter Cronkite whose voice upon that program bestowed a blessing and implied gravitas the likes of which cannot be measured by anything yet invented. No other network news program had or has anything like it. Suffice it to say Cronkite’s voice over on the program’s open was an invaluable asset.

McManus had indicated the program would lose Cronkite’s voice on the open in 2009 after the anchor man died but the Cronkite family allowed it to be used ever after, which (it was said at the time) made everyone happy at CBS News.

Evidently “everyone” lied.

The stupidest thing The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric ever did occurred tonight – it removed a pillar of broadcast journalism as the voice of the network’s primary news program and replaced it with someone else. It is not Freeman’s fault…no one could have replaced Cronkite’s perfect voice over.

No one should have.

Tags: announcers, CBS News, CBS Television Network, voice casting, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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There are those, sometimes myself included, who wonder if any event on television can ever capture the imagination anymore.

Sporting events? Maybe for a day like the Super Bowl – but when you think about it, it is just another football game with some extra sweet frosting surrounding it.

Inaugurations? Funerals, maybe.

But visually the sight of Paul McCartney playing live during a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman ON THE MARQUEE of the Ed Sullivan Theatre (the theatre where he first played in America as a Beatle on the Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964) was stunning.

It was impactful.

Watch the thousands of people lining Broadway and the side streets…as far as the eye could see. Office workers and people hanging out windows to listen. The TODAY show may try but it’s not the same.

To consider the history that happened there in 1964 and everything that transpired for McCartney, the Beatles and the world since then was amazing.

That’s what television CAN do when it’s not doling out crap about some pseudo celebrity or chasing “real-life” stories.

If you’re a true broadcaster at heart, if you get the history that surrounds our medium, this was great television.

This is why David Letterman is the king of late night and, since Carson retired, always has been. They both can be called comedians and entertainers but they are broadcasters first.

True broadcasters can make great television.

P.S. 7.17.09- Sometimes when you do make great television, EVERYBODY notices. Congrats, Dave!

Tags: CBS Television Network, commentary, tv, video by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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The cynical would say when television networks produce anniversary shows it is to prove they are still relevant. While I get that argument, I look at it differently; I see it as a kind of a history lesson.

Maybe it is because I am so fascinated by such things that I found this blog post from the KINESCOPE HD blog so terrific. The post features clips from the 1978 production of CBS-TV (and to a degree, radio) celebrating its first 50 years.

What is so poignant for me watching this was seeing so many of the stars long since passed today shown healthy and vibrant and so duly noted in this 1978 special. I cannot help but imagine how cool it must have been back stage, not because of some past, present or future “celebrity” status but rather to have all those talented people together, mixing, sharing stories…what an amazing experience it must have been. Some egos? Sure…you’ll note the absence of a certain Jackie Gleason in the show. What’s up with that?! Maybe it was a “scheduling” thing.

Can you IMAGINE sitting, chatting and mostly listening to Lucille Ball, Red Skelton, George Burns and on and on – likely pleasant folks with mind-blowing stories and experiences and more than a few great belly laughs. So much to learn!

Also of note were some of the sets in the show which used graphics still on the air today on shows like CBS News Sunday Morning. The designs are classic and timeless, much like the network’s famous eye logo (shown respectfully above).

Look, the songs and the skits are a bit hokey but it was celebration and taken as a whole, a pretty OK one at that.

I hope you enjoy watching these clips as much as I did and kudos to KINESCOPE HD for putting it together. They always do a bang up job and I am a proud subscriber to their blog.

Tags: CBS Television Network, commentary by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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