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Houston Tv Talk Shows


citykid09

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What talk shows have been taped in Houston?

I know that Debra Duncan was taped in Houston and what else?

also Texas Justice is still taped at the Fox 26 studios.

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DebraDuncanCrowd.jpg

The reason I ask is because I was watching abc13 KTRK when I got home last night, it was about 1:00am and there was this talk show called "Confessions" with Wash Allen. He had an auddience and everything. I had never heard of it so I looked it up on the internet and I found this on the KCOH website.

If your taste for talk radio gravitates toward conversation focusing on interpersonal relationships, check out "Confessions" with nationally syndicated host, Wash Allen. Wash plays the music from 11 AM until 12:00 PM every weekday when he opens up the phone lines to his "soothsayers" and the fun begins. "Confessions" with Wash Allen continues until 2 PM.

But thats a radio show taped in Houston and I saw the TV Show. Does anyone know about this?

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John Bradshaw had a syndicated show, The Bradshaw Difference, that was taped in Houston, I think. It was in about 1996. It was not done all that well- the lighting was poor and all looked very drab. He was nominated for a Daytime Emmy award.

The local TBN station KETH 14 produces shows which go regional- to the Gulf Coast and San Antonio. And what about Lakewood- I guess they go world-wide. Second Baptist Church is shown nationally. Not exactly talk shows, however.

Our PBS has had a few shows go national like Mary Lou's Flip-Flop-Shop. I thought it was very well done but again not a talk show. Ernie Manouse may have something going regional or national. I wish channel 8 would show those more often.

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What talk shows have been taped in Houston?

I know that Debra Duncan was taped in Houston and what else?

also Texas Justice is still taped at the Fox 26 studios.

Set.jpg

DebraDuncanCrowd.jpg

The reason I ask is because I was watching abc13 KTRK when I got home last night, it was about 1:00am and there was this talk show called "Confessions" with Wash Allen. He had an auddience and everything. I had never heard of it so I looked it up on the internet and I found this on the KCOH website.

If your taste for talk radio gravitates toward conversation focusing on interpersonal relationships, check out "Confessions" with nationally syndicated host, Wash Allen. Wash plays the music from 11 AM until 12:00 PM every weekday when he opens up the phone lines to his "soothsayers" and the fun begins. "Confessions" with Wash Allen continues until 2 PM.

But thats a radio show taped in Houston and I saw the TV Show. Does anyone know about this?

I saw the Wash Allen show also. It was a total waste of time. I could not believe someone paid to put that on TV. It was a bunch of unrelated clips, some looked several years old, spliced together. I could never determine the point.

The Debra Duncan Show was very good. I love her personality- she is really entertaining. I enjoyed it when she sang and winked and pointed but I wonder if she was not generic enough to go national. I don't think she could hide all that personality. Was her studio a problem? It seemed very narrow compared to other shows. When I visited the 13 studios for the Kitirik show in the 1960's it seemed quite expansive. I think that dome predates the Harris County Domed Stadium.

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I saw the Wash Allen show also.  It was a total waste of time.  I could not believe someone paid to put that on TV.  It was a bunch of unrelated clips, some looked several years old, spliced together.  I could never determine the point.

The Debra Duncan Show was very good.  I love her personality- she is really entertaining.  I enjoyed it when she sang and winked and pointed but I wonder if she was not generic enough to go national.  I don't think she could hide all that personality.  Was her studio a problem?  It seemed very narrow compared to other shows.  When I visited the 13 studios for the Kitirik show in the 1960's it seemed quite expansive.  I think that dome predates the Harris County Domed Stadium.

I went to the Debra Duncan show and I loved it!! She seems so personable!! :)

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Our PBS has had a few shows go national like Mary Lou's Flip-Flop-Shop. I thought it was very well done but again not a talk show. 

A big chunk of Mary Lou's funding came from the religious sector. She had to shoot two endings to each segment. One with the normal ending and the other with the Christian ending. Do you know how that translated into the nationally syndicated show? ie is it considered a religious show or not?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Oh, someone else actually caught "Confessions"...

And this is where the TV Nerd shows up to provide info.

The first few weeks KTRK rebroadcast it, It still had the old, early 90's graphics on it and everything (including ch. 39's logo, branded as "39 HTV"). It's been replaced with a generic address graphic.

Some of the clips show cameras with one of the old KPRC logos on them, so I don't know what that's about. The shows in their entirety actually had a point, this infomercial is just to pimp out the production company.

As for decent shows...

-Good Morning Houston. That was on forever, and it was the #1 rated local talk show in the country from 1985-91. It also got 40% of all viewers in the area during the 9AM hour at the height of it's run.

-59 South. This was in the day before AM News started at 5AM and stations may actually sign off at times! Community service show wedged in at 5:30 AM on Ch. 2, before NBC News/Local News

-Debra Duncan *Almost* ended up being syndicated. The first season's rating's weren't high enough for that to happen though...

*End of Geekiness*

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Hey Big 2 News:

Lets see if you go back that far.

I still watch Channel Two because of memories of it's glory days in the 1960's thru 1980's, hoping to catch a remaining glimmer of those days. I had a great deal of respect for the staff of that period. Ray Miller, Ron Stone, Doug Johnson (and Sid Lasher? I think) had great personalities and produced the finest quality programing for the times- thoughtfully written and delivered.

On the topic of Houston TV talk shows, Channel 2 had two of the best, also in this period. Daily, at noon, the fabulous and gracious Joanne King had an hour or half hour show. I remember her being the most elegant and beautiful person I had ever seen on TV at that time. I was completely mesmerized by her. While being a perfect Southern Lady, she also was quite progressive exploring edgy topics of the day.

When she decided to resign from the rigors of a daily show, there was great sadness. Ron Stone, the lead anchorman, did a documentary on her fascinating life and I remember it being so beautifully filmed at her grandparent's antebellum Mt. Vernon style mansion, Rosewood, formerly located near Westheimer @ Fondren. (She has since relocated it to the Fulshire area I believe.) In the early 1960's she became internationally known for giving one of the most lavish parties of that era at her splendid Rivercrest mansion. Several of the rooms in this home are among the most elegant in the country- really! It's a recreation of a French palace.

Nancy Ames, a national NBC TV star was hired to replace Joanne King. Ames had just done a show for NBC called The Week That Was (?) where she used her well honed singing and entertaining skills to interpret the topics of the day. On her Houston show, she had a wonderful pianist, Danny Ward, and performed lovely songs in both English and Spanish. She seemed to be a bit groovier and more down to earth. She also lived in Rivercrest and often filmed segments for her show at her estate. She was interested in organic gardening and cooking. Ames and Ward are now event producers who stage some of the grandest events in the nation including the Texas Inauguration Ball in Washington D.C..

Did you ever have the opportunity to work with any of these legends?

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Yes, Dialing for Dollars was on for about 30 years starting in the mid to late 1960's on KTRK 13 the KiTiRiK network. Betty Rogers and Paul Schmit were the early and long time hosts. The young and dashing male hosts who seemed to not stay around too long included Bob Hilton and Don Nelson among others. Nelson is still there today, a fixture on the morning news.

The show was renamed Good Morning Houston around 1980 I believe. Betty Rogers stayed on for a while and Jan Glen, the perky former West Texas cheer leader joined in. Remember those fashion segments? Every Wednesday was Ben Shaw day. He was a model agency director and represented some of our towns best models including Dallas Hill and her daughter Wilomina(?), Warner Roberts, and Molly Ward I believe. Warner Roberts later had her own talk show on channel 39 or 26 at mid-day. (She was all about love.)

But the main thing about Dailing for Dollars was just that- THE DIALING! Oh it was so exciting.............at the opening of each show they made the big announcement of the COUNT and the AMOUNT. They had cut every page up of the local telephone directory into small sections. For example, if the COUNT was 3 from the bottom, that was the telephone number they would call from the section they had drawn and if that person answered, they would ask for the COUNT and the AMOUNT. The jackpot went up $10.00 for every person that did not answer or did not know the COUNT and the AMOUNT when they were called.

We faithfully watched every day in the summer and on school holidays but they never called. We always thought their bin had lost our little slip. Can you imagine the thrill of the station interns when the new telephone directories had to be prepared for the bin! Remember their set? Yellow and lime green lattice work with plastic ivy. It was a garden party scene and they had a live audience that sat at round tables. They had all the big stars of the day on that were travling the country pushing their new projects. I was fortunate to obtain a movie poster autographed by Jack Lemon while in Houston appearing on Dailing for Dollars, from the estate of Betty Rogers, that once hung in her office.

If they still had this show would they call it Pushing for Dollars?

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I can only remember a live studio audience at Dialing for Dollars.

I cannot remember Channel 2 ever having a show with a live audience except for Mary Jane's Magic Castle which was a childrens show staring Mary Jane Vanderver broadcast from the old studio in the quonset hut near the Galleria. The Jerry Lewis MD Telethon was once a show drawing a tremendous number of people to Channel 2 but it seems they have greatly limited that lately.

Today Channel 2 has Gimmie the Mike with an audience which I assume is filmed at the Channel 2 studio.

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Good Morning Houston never had an audience, except for the annual Jefferson Awards show where families of the winners would be invited to an actual audience...

The MDA Telethon used to have a bunch of fishbowl locations (Including car lines at the studios). Where can you find that kind of involvement today? I recall that throughout the 80's, they rented out the floor of The Summit for their huge phonebanks. They used to be really big on seasonal food drives as well, but I think that may have shifted over to 11 or 26 over the years.

One show that nobody's mentioned yet is the ill-fated Ron Stone Show (90-92)

It had several formats and timeslots as it jumped from 11:30 AM to 4:30PM, and had an audience some days or a roundtable discussion on others.

There was also This Day with Katharine. It featured the late Katharine Blissard, and from what I recall, it was similar in format to the original version of Later. An extended, in depth discussion with one person on their life and their accomplishments. I think it was actually the predecessor to 59 South, or it may have just aired before it.

Gimme The Mike's set is actually Studio B at KPRC, which is usually the sparse Sports Sunday set, and was the primary news set into the mid 90's.

I just plain don't watch 2 any more. I haven't been that happy since '95. The earliest version of News 2 Houston was fine, though it just seemed odd to have Jan Carson bumped down to a beat reporter, and Doug Johnson do his farewell on tape.

As for Big 2 News, that was a little before my time. Here's a random snap from that period though!

75Op.jpg

-Gotta love the 70's! Interesting photo from Allen Pkwy, though.

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It seems like Ron Stone took over the Chris Chandler show when it became the Scene at Five with weather predictor Doug Johnson.

The Big 2 News photo above looks like Larry Rasco in center as anchorman, Doug Johnson on right and I am not sure if that is Bill Worell to the left who did the sports. What was the sports guy they had near this period who died very young and later two of his sons came along and took their fathers place?

Does anyone remember what happened to Larry Rasco? I heard he met an unfortunate demise. Ron Stone ended up taking over his duties and they lived just a few houses apart.

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  • 1 month later...

Man do I miss the old people at Channel 2. All the names mentioned above brought great old memories.

When Steve Wussieman and his crew took over the station they fired "the old timers" in favor of new meat, one of them was Dominique Sachse. I still enjoy her but the others not so much.

Anyone remember Ted Shaw? He was on the air for like 40 something years. He was the weatherman and a very good one.

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  • 1 month later...
Could other people get the Debra Duncan show out of town? The reason I ask is because look at this. http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/ontv/072700_LT_Debra.html

Or is that just a link?

Interesting how the site for ABC 12 has a headline for show that says "Only on ABC13".

I actually ran into her at the Clear Channel building's deli this morning. I think she does her radio show from there.

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Want to be An Audience Member? Tickets for the Debra Duncan show are ABSOLUTELY free!!! We would love to have you as a member of our audience or maybe even a guest. So drop us an email or call our ticket information line (713) 218-2800.

*LOVELY!!! There is our lovely...

Bay City/Flint/Saginaw... um Michigan!?

skycam.jpg

anyone know what road that is! LOL

Park is target of sex sting

Park rangers out in full force

(06/03/05)--A popular Genesee County park has become the center of a series of sex-sting operations.

US-23 seeing more new barrels

Freeway construction in full swing

(06/01/05)--If you travel on US-23 or I-75, pay close attention. Just when you thought the construction couldn't get any worse, it does.

(these people aren't used to traffic? LMAO!! Michiganians don't need to come to Houston!! we see a new barrel almost weekly er..daily. LOL!)

doppler_xtreme_radar_live.jpg

look they got a "Radar" like we do ;) er... not the same thing as KPRC's Channel 2's loveable (gags) pooch!

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