Let’s see if we can make this amusing clip into a Nerd thing.
Okay, I got it. It’s all about aspect ratio! See, if this KPRC-TV Houston news anchor was being seen in 4:3 standard definition, he would not have been caught flipping the bird at an off-camera colleague on live television. But the news is now in 16:9 high definition, so…
Okay, that’s a stretch. (Not a stretch of the picture, a stretch in… oh, forget it) But it’s Thursday, the end of the week can’t come soon enough, and we can use a laugh, right? So there you go.
I write a lot about the old days of local television on my blog (pmsimon.com — hey, I’m not above blatant plugging); back in the days before cable and, in most places, only 3 or 4 channels, there were a lot more local shows and local characters, like kiddie show and horror movie hosts. TV wasn’t necessarily better — okay, it WASN’T better — but there was more of a sense of community on TV then. There were local celebrities, and if you mention those names to anyone who grew up in those areas, they light up. You don’t see that anymore. There are more nationally and internationally shared media experiences, but fewer purely local phenomena….
Nobody could top Marvin “Slime in the ice machine*” Zindler.
* His signature tag line from reporting health dept violations at various Houston eateries – complete with its own song.
What a professional! He just keeps movin right along! lol
KPRC-TV, Channel 2, Owen Conflenti. I’ve found another source — the video’s not as good (shot with a camcorder pointed at the TV) but you can see the action anyway.
And, no, he’s no Marvin Zindler, although there could not possibly be another Marvin Zindler. (For those unfamiliar with Marvin, he was the outlandish Channel 13 Houston crusading consumer reporter with improbable “hair” whose real-life reports on the infamous “Chicken Ranch” became the basis for “The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas.” I would say that every market had a guy like that on some local station, but he was unique and hard to forget)
I live in Houston, which one was it? They pulled the video. That’s funny.
He’s no Marvin Zindler.
Bwah ha ha! I wish they had footage of his reaction to learning it went out on air and the smirk of whomever he was giving the finger to.