Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
The music of In the News, with its computer-like bells of import ringing at the end, the spinning skeleton globe, and the steady voice of unseen newscaster Christopher Glenn are about as permanent a memory of my childhood weekend mornings as "Overture, curb the lights"* and Schoolhouse Rock. It all came back to me today upon hearing the news that Glenn passed away from liver cancer Tuesday, at age 68.
Glenn not only taught me what "impeach" meant, he asked me, at age 6, whether I thought it should happen to Richard Nixon.
I didn't have an answer, but still ...
It all meant something. I imagine Glenn meant a lot to a great many people. Even though I never saw a photograph of him until today, I'll always remember him.
*Those weren't the actual words, but that was the best I could parse it at the time.
Those news reports made me feel like I could actually understand world events; they weren't some impenetrable thing only grownups had access to. That's a really valuable feeling to have, even if you don't remember the actual news items themselves.
This is it, the night of nights,
No more rehearsing, or nursing a part,
We know every part by heart.
Overture! Curtain! Lights!
This is it, we'll hit the heights,
And oh, what heights we'll hit,
On with the show; this is it!
That's one of the few old television jingles that I don't mind having stuck in my head. It occurs to me that the original prime time version of the Bugs Bunny Show was sort of what Studio 60 aspires to be. A show about putting on a comedy show, where the show within the show is actually funny. (Now that I think of it, the Muppet Show is another example of this.)
That's a shame about Christopher Glenn. I can still hear his voice, too, which is a testament to exactly how many years he did those spots.
John Facenda's face is another matter.
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