Saturday, May 26, 2012

The Evolution of the Magazine Show at PIX; Flashback Bay Area TV



At KPIX, they just dumped "Eye on the Bay." No great loss.

Especially when you consider the origin of the show began way back in 1976 under the umbrella name, "MTWTF Show", and later, "Evening Magazine." It wasn't Masterpiece Theatre, but it did OK and was watchable.

And get this! Hardly any restaurant reviews. I'm not kidding.

Enjoy a look back in time.

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16 comments:

  1. I really liked that show back then.

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  2. Speaking of 1976..Viki Liviakis who of course was killer then..I caught doing an infomercial for Mercedes Benz...And she was striking poses next to the car!..2012 and she still causes lust!
    Funny but I saw Theresa Russell looking great in a 2008 movie this morning..when she was 51. Baby Boomer woman aren't going easy to the old folks home..

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  3. Is Steve Fox still alive?..he's not on Wiki. He was the quintessential 70's man. His look..every parody of the 70's anchors or porn stats look like him. That new insurance commercial? could be Steve Fox's son.

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    1. I saw him on something several years ago. He put on a ton of weight.

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  4. According to Richard Hart & Jan Yanehiro KPIX destroyed all the tapes

    "Q. Where are the “Evening Magazine” archives?

    Jan: We kept some of the tapes. Each of us has some of them …

    Richard: … At the time the show ended, Westinghouse had a huge stockpile of tapes. Lots of famous interview on it. Everyone tried to buy it or preserve it. They destroyed it. Hundreds and hundreds of tapes. They said “We can’t afford to store it.”

    from a 2010 SFGATE interview.

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  5. I watched the premiere show in 1976, and I remember that in the beginning it had three hosts, Steve Fox, Jan Yanehiro and . . . ??? But I could never remember who the third host was. This has been bugging me for years. Now at last the mystery has been solved -- Eric Smith. Thanks, Rich!

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  6. Evening Magazine was the shit. I loved the Mystery Chef even as a wee lad.

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  7. Richard Hart tried to grab his share of the dotcom bubble by helping start up C-Net company. Not sure whatever happened with that.

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  8. Well, Rich, I respect your opinion but disagree with you on this one. Just as KRON ruined The Bay Area Backroads with Jerry Graham with a new, boring host, KPIX made a bad decision here. But, I'm an avid viewer. Loved it. I don't want the news, but I watched EVERY episode of Eye on The Bay and liked its Facebook fan page.

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  9. Richard Hart was host along with Ryan Seacrest, Henri Srivasen the TV show Cnet Central was syndicated. BTW if I recall right the 7:30 show on KCRA in Sacramento was the first locally produced magazine show. It featured Harry Martin and Terry Richard as in studio hosts with live ENG remotes. I think it debuted before Evening Magazine.

    Radar

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    1. You may be right.
      KCRA had a certain quality (although I did not agree with them editorialy).
      Their ability to create an entertainment segment was second to none.
      Unrated TV station.

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  10. KPIX's Evening Magazine was first hosted by San Francisco radio personality Jan Yanehiro, journalist Steve Fox and Detroit news anchor and reporter Erik Smith. Yanehiro stayed with the series throughout original run, while Fox stayed for three years and Smith for only the first 13 weeks. Smith had come from WXYZ-TV in Detroit, Michigan and returned there, becoming the anchor of that station's weekday morning newscast. The original KPIX version would go on to air more than 3,000 episodes.
    Richard Hart joined the series after Steve Fox left and stayed until the "final" episode in 1989. Jan Yanehiro was then joined by Mike Jerrick for a rebooted series titled Evening, which was later renamed Evening Magazine. This continuation ran for a little over 200 episodes.

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  11. Talking about TV magazine shows: In November 1973, KCRA 3 aired an innovative magazine-style program called "The 7:30 Show". In June 1976, the name of the show changed to "Weeknight". This program was a first in many ways. A local news organization produced it and many KCRA 3 reporters contributed to the original show content. It aired five days a week, in addition to the station's news shows. It was a 30 minute show, unlike many stations, which aired two to three minutes of feature material within their newscasts. The show was soon copied by individuals who inaugurated their own 'magazine' format program called "Evening Magazine" and syndicated it nationally. I recall watching the show hosted by Harry Martin and Terry Richard.
    Radar

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  12. It's funny, but a lot of the "lite-stuff" that wasn't weighty enough to make it on a news show ended up on those "Evening" type shows. Now those stories make up a good 10-20 percent of local news.
    Probably more if you're talking about morning and midday news.

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    1. Great point. Newscasts today routinely cover trash shows like American Idol as real news. How far we've fallen.

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    2. Those "Evening Type" shows dominate local news.
      Want an example? Just listen to 5 minutes of Ronn Owens program and you will get a first rate example of fluff stories/programing.
      Can I sell you another gadget?
      Did you see last night's installment of Survivor?
      (plug in any reality show)
      KGO do you wonder why you turned off so many listeners?

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