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SNL Parodies Local News

Oscar Madison said:
Local news has become a parody of local news. Probably the earliest parody, even before Ron Burgundy, was Ted Baxter.
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Ted Baxter was based primarily on George Putnam, a local Los Angeles area newscaster who was very popular from the 50s to the 70s, and then was big in right wing local talk radio until his death just a few years ago. If Putnam were around today, I have no doubt he would be a fixture at Fox News.
 
I was surprised they didn't try to make this a part of "Weekend Update", but Colin and Michael had their hands full with the debate.
 
LKellerIII said:
Ted Baxter was based primarily on George Putnam, a local Los Angeles area newscaster who was very popular from the 50s to the 70s, and then was big in right wing local talk radio until his death just a few years ago. If Putnam were around today, I have no doubt he would be a fixture at Fox News.
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Ted Baxter was based primarily on Jerry Dunphy, although his speech patterns and inflections came from Putnam. Putnam had a following but he spent his TV career at independent stations. When he returned to talk radio, he was heard successively on rimshot stations in Glendale and San Bernardino.
 
Oscar Madison said:
Ted Baxter was based primarily on Jerry Dunphy, although his speech patterns and inflections came from Putnam. Putnam had a following but he spent his TV career at independent stations. When he returned to talk radio, he was heard successively on rimshot stations in Glendale and San Bernardino.
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Don't think so. I remember seeing Mary Tyler Moore interviewed by Johnny Carson back in the late 70s. She stated that Ted was based primarily on Putnam. The only thing Ted had in common with Dunphy was the white hair, and the allegation that Jerry Dunphy was stupid. To a certain extent, Ted Baxter was supposed to be a composite. IIRC, the KABC-TV anchor at the time the MTM show started was still Baxter Ward, who quit news to become a politician, so there's another comparison.

Finally - old George had more than a "following." You are right that he worked on independent stations, but KTLA and KTTV were not insignificant stations. Typically, when Putnam's contract was up, a bidding war would ensue between KTLA and KTTV and George would often change stations for more money. In the late 60s, Putnam was the highest paid news anchor in America, reportedly making more than Walter Cronkite at CBS.

But Ted's voice, mannerisms, etc. -were all George Putnam. In fact, there's a story that sometime in the late 70s or early, George let Ted Knight come on his news program to parody him. That may be an apocryphal story given that Putnam wasn't known for his sense of humor.
 
vchimpanzee said:
I was surprised they didn't try to make this a part of "Weekend Update", but Colin and Michael had their hands full with the debate.
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Wait Weekend Update was originally based on the parody of KGO/WABC anchor Roger Grimsby from what I heard about at the time. I seen this version that TV spy provided and one of the people there was supposed to be a parody of Leo Stallworth of KABC 7 Eyewitness News at a sinkhole.
 
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