Friday, December 17, 1999
Burbank calling it quits next year
BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
This is it, says Gary Burbank, WLW's (700) crazy 2-6 p.m. personalty. This is really going to be it, he says.
After years of threatening to retire, Mr. Burbank claims he will quit after 181/2 years when his contract expires on Dec. 11, 2000.
That's just 51 weeks away.
“I know I've said this before — and the bosses say, "Yeah, Gary, sure' — but I seem more resolute about it this time,” says Mr. Burbank, who turns 59 on July 29.
When his show was nationally syndicated in 1997, Mr. Burbank announced he was moving the show to Universal Studios in Orlando. He already had purchased three acres along the Rainbow River in central Florida for a new home.
The national show fell through, and the Memphis native opted to stay at WLW-AM, where he has worked since 1981. But he's worried about being past his prime.
“I kind of feel like a comic who has been on the stage for 18 years, and the applause keeps getting less and less,” he says.
Mr. Burbank is building a house on the Florida property. He already has a recording studio in another building on the land. He plans to split time between Florida and his Northern Kentucky residence in 2001.
“Cincinnati is my home, and it's going to be my home,” he says.
Earl Pitts fans will be happy to hear that Mr. Burbank will continue to syndicate his daily Pitts commentaries, and possibly other characters.
And he plans to pursue his latest passion. “I've become a golf addict,” he says.
That's another reason not to change his mind — this time.
“I was going to retire at 35. I'm way behind on things.”
HOMETOWN PROUD: WCPO-TV showcases Joe Webb's delightful “Hometown” features in prime-time today, and rightfully so.
An Hour in Our Hometown (8 p.m., Channel 9) repeats Mr. Webb's favorite features about Main Auction Gallery; Findlay Market; the Cincinnati Observatory; the McGuffey Reader; the artwork of former Channel 9 stars Al and Wanda Lewis; and how suburban Hamilton County churches came to the aid of a Baptist church damaged in the April 9 tornado.
Mr. Webb has produced about 200 of these “good news” stories in three years. Although newspapers have done human interest stories for years, the “Hometown” reports are unique in local TV, and a welcome break from the crime and court news.
Mr. Webb does two new stories a week (5 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday), with repeats airing Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m.
And now some really good news: He will continue to do them, contrary to announcement last week that they would be cut back and Jay Shatz's Around the House and Michael Flannery's Know It Alls would be canceled.
News Director Scott Diener has worked out a plan for Mr. Webb to continue doing two “Hometown” features a week.
So far, no reprieve for Around the House or Know It Alls. Canceling those shows returns four people — two reporters and two photographers — to the Channel 9 newsroom, to ease a manpower shortage caused by a hiring freeze.
KEILLOR FILM: Cincinnati native Brad Wigor has completed shooting The Sandy Bottom Orchestra, a Showtime movie based on a novel by Garrison Keillor and his wife, Jenny Lind Nilsson.
The 1973 Indian Hill High School graduate directed the film about an eccentric musical family in a small Wisconsin town. It stars Glenne Headly (Mr. Holland's Opus, ER), Tom Irwin, Madeline Zima and Jane Powell.
Mr. Wigor's partner in Helios Productions, Joe Maurer, wrote the screenplay. Mr. Maurer also adapted Willa Cather's The Song of the Lark, the first project for PBS' Mobil Masterpiece American Collection series next year.
ENQUIRERING MIND: Today's guest Enquirering mind, Ira Zimmerman of Amberley Village, wants to know: Are reruns of the original Twilight Zone available on TV?
Yes, on the Sci Fi Channel.
Two episodes from Rod Serling's 1959-65 anthology series air 1-2 p.m. weekdays. Another two air 2-3 a.m. Monday (late Sunday night).
Mr. Serling started his career here in 1950 writing for WLW-AM and WLWT, and did his first TV dramas in 1951 for a WKRC-TV series called The Storm.
WASTE NOT: Wasteland, Kevin Williamson's (Dawson's Creek) autobiographical drama canceled by ABC, is being pitched to Fox and MTV, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.
“It's a longshot, but it's still worth pursuing. We'd love to have someplace to give it a chance,” the paper was told by Billy Campbell, president of Miramax TV, which produced Wasteland.
ABC only aired three of 13 filmed episodes about young college graduates in Manhattan starring Madisonville native Jeffrey D. Sams, Marisa Coughlan and Rebecca Gayheart.
AROUND THE DIAL: The 1999 Golden Galaxy Awards air 11:30 a.m. Sunday on Channel 12. The awards were presented in October to Tristate teens by the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative, WKRC-TV and The Cincinnati Enquirer.
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