editor Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 I know he's been brought up a couple of times on HAIF, so I thought I'd give everyone an update.Johnathan Walton called me this morning. He's in Los Angeles now working as a producer for a production company that makes shows for cable TV (Discovery, MSNBC, and similar channels). He's also trying to develop his own comedy show, but doesn't expect anything to come of that for a little while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricco67 Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 Well, I wish him luck. I think he'll probably happier behind the camera instead of in front of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pumapayam Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 They should probably update the KHOU website and remove his crap from there. Glad he is gone, never missed him, never noticed he left, but SO glad he is. Those annoying fluff news personalities suck. Jeanne Moos of CNN Headline News is the only one that does it right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted April 10, 2008 Author Share Posted April 10, 2008 Well, I wish him luck. I think he'll probably happier behind the camera instead of in front of it.Actually, the impression I got was that he's in anguish. But he's putting in his time behind the camera to learn how L.A. works. The problem with starting a new show out there is that nothing else you've done matters. It's like walking into a city of competition with a blank resume. Worked in TV news? No one cares. Worked somewhere other than New York and L.A.? No one cares. It sounds like he has a lot of hard work ahead of him. IMO, the humility is doing him some good.It's surprising that he's still on KHOU's web site. He's been gone from there for a couple of years, hasn't he? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pumapayam Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 It's surprising that he's still on KHOU's web site. He's been gone from there for a couple of years, hasn't he?I think the content is just left on the web server, but all visible links from the main page are removed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FilioScotia Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 He's also trying to develop his own comedy show, but doesn't expect anything to come of that for a little while.I really do hope he succeeds in his new endeavor, but, IMO, the first thing he has to do is figure out what "funny" is and how to BE funny. He wasn't funny in Houston. He was just obnoxious, and I think a lot of people here will agree that obnoxious isn't funny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted April 16, 2008 Author Share Posted April 16, 2008 I really do hope he succeeds in his new endeavor, but, IMO, the first thing he has to do is figure out what "funny" is and how to BE funny. He wasn't funny in Houston. He was just obnoxious, and I think a lot of people here will agree that obnoxious isn't funny.I think he's a different kind of funny than you and I relate to. There seems to be a lot of people who think "obnoxious" or "destructive" means "funny." For examples, look at MTV's "Punk'd" series or pretty much anything on Comedy Central.It's not my cup of tea, nor yours, but there appears to be a young, male, teen-age, basement-dwelling audience for it.Fortunately, the nation seems to be getting over the whole notion that "mean and angry" equals "funny" and we're seeing less of that sort of thing already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pumapayam Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 I really do hope he succeeds in his new endeavor, but, IMO, the first thing he has to do is figure out what "funny" is and how to BE funny. He wasn't funny in Houston. He was just obnoxious, and I think a lot of people here will agree that obnoxious isn't funny.I think that is what he was supposed to be, that fake happy, looking for that "nonsense/filler" local news to help close the show with so that you forget about the violence reports and such that most of the news is filled with and go to bed less stressed out.He plain sucks. If if by chance he ever reads this thread, I hope he changes for the better, no one (myself and people I know) like him on KHOU, and it was a definite channel changing experience. Ack!Don't miss himIs Lanny Griffith and Roseanne Rogers next, I hope so.Leave the stupid news to Entertainmentment Tonight, Insider, Extra, and Access Hollywood etc where it belongs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted April 16, 2008 Author Share Posted April 16, 2008 I think that is what he was supposed to be, that fake happy, looking for that "nonsense/filler" local news to help close the show with so that you forget about the violence reports and such that most of the news is filled with and go to bed less stressed out.Not exactly. The reason for bringing in Walton was called "P.O.D." -- Point Of Difference -- a reason to choose cracKHOUse over the other stations. In evaluating their news product, the managers noticed that all the stations had pretty much the same stories told pretty much the same way. The idea of bringing in Walton was to give people a reason to choose one station over the other. Marvin Zindler was a P.O.D. for 13. That weatherdog was a P.O.D. for 2. 39's P.O.D. is not having a P.O.D. It's going with "Slow and steady wins the race."What Johnathan did was very successful when he was in San Antonio. But he couldn't duplicate that success in Houston. In large part it was because in S.A. he was on the 9pm news two or three times a week, so he had lots of time to set things up, make good editorial decisions, cut out the unnecessary, etc... He only had to fill about five minutes a week.When 11 brought him to Houston suddenly he had to fill 30 minutes a day with no time to set anything up or think or make good decision. At that time, the KHOU newsroom wasn't much on thinking -- it was all stimulus-response. Regardless of whether he was actually funny or not (he had a few moments, IMO), he was destined to fail simply because his new bosses demanded everything, but gave him zero resources to work with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pumapayam Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 When 11 brought him to Houston suddenly he had to fill 30 minutes a day with no time to set anything up or think or make good decision. At that time, the KHOU newsroom wasn't much on thinking -- it was all stimulus-response.30 minutes of Walton's World each day!, serious?!?I never knew (since I changed the channel when ever he reported), I guess I assumed that he was a 5 minute story guy, and just on once a week.Yeah, more blame should be on KHOU for expecting him to put out good quality reports.No wonder he was lousy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted April 16, 2008 Author Share Posted April 16, 2008 30 minutes of Walton's World each day!, serious?!?I never knew (since I changed the channel when ever he reported), I guess I assumed that he was a 5 minute story guy, and just on once a week.Yeah, more blame should be on KHOU for expecting him to put out good quality reports.No wonder he was lousy.He was supposed to fill 5-7 minute slots, twice an hour 5am, 6am and then once in the 7am hour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricco67 Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 He was supposed to fill 5-7 minute slots, twice an hour 5am, 6am and then once in the 7am hour.I'm not in the industry and *I* know that is a pretty damned near impossible thing to do with all original material. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vertigo58 Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 Yep Houston is going to sure miss "Top of the morning to ya". We could never hit the mute button fast enough. Another forum (ironically in LA) mentioned that if there were ever another remake of Wizard of Oz, well need we go there. Lollipop Guild stand in perhaps. Glad he has a sense of humor. Me thinks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texas911 Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 Good luck to him. I actually enjoyed his humor and his antics. Livened up the dreary death reports of the morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LakefrontLisa Posted May 14, 2008 Share Posted May 14, 2008 I agree with Texas911, even thought his humor was "odd-ballish" it did break up that depressing news repeated over and over for what like 3 hours. I do wish him success and hope he has been able to keep the weight off he lost Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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