Digg it!From Walter Cronkite’s ‘That’s The Way It Is’ to Peter Jennings’ ‘For everyone at ABC News, I’m Peter Jennings. Good night.’, many TV news anchor have left their own imprint on television history by using their sign off to send a simple message to everyone watching.
Their sign offs are usually a simple one liner that tells everyone of a virtue they hold true.
And I have to admit, the sign off freakin’ work because we sure miss them once their gone.
10. Peter Jennings: For everyone at ABC News, I m Peter Jennings. Good night.
Peter Jennings was the sole anchor of ABC’s World News Tonight from 1983 until his death in 2005.
He was plucked out of his field reporting job to anchor the news in the hopes of attracting younger viewers. They succeeded not only in that but also in creating a dynasty. He is known for looking at the monitor instead of the camera everytime the camera goes back to him making thew news appear very casual instead of formal. He is also sometimes “caught” fixing his hair (just a bit) and fixing his tie or coat.
Peter Jennings appeared 5th April 2005 announcing he had been diagnosed with lung cancer. He promised to do the news “on good days” and appealed for smokers to stop the bad habit.
9. Lowell Thomas: So long, until tomorrow.
Lowell Thomas was an American writer, broadcaster, and traveller best known as the man who made Lawrence of Arabia famous.
Thomas and a cameraman, Harry Chase, went to followed General Allenby’s campaign against the Ottoman Empire in Palestine. Thomas interviewed and subsequently followed T. E. Lawrence, a captain in the British Army in Jerusalem. Lawrence was starting a revolution against the Turks.
Lawrence provided Thomas with material on the condition that Thomas also photograph and interview Arab leaders such as Emir Feisal.
After the war, Thomas toured the world with his film.
His signature sign-on was “Good evening, everybody” and his sign-off “So long, until tomorrow,” phrases he would use in titling his two volumes of memoirs.
8. Linda Ellerbee: And so it goes
Linda Ellerbee worked for NBC News, Nickelodeon network’s Nick News, and reporter and co-anchor of NBC News Overnight. It has been recognized by the jurors of the duPont Columbia Awards as “possibly the best written and most intelligent news program ever.
She appeared in the sitcom Murphy Brown to challenge fictional TV journalist Murphy Brown (Candice Bergen) to come up with a sign off better than hers.
7. John McLaughlin: Bye-bye
John McLaughlin created, produces and hosts the long-running political commentary series The McLaughlin Group as well as John McLaughlin’s One On One.
McLaughlin is considered the “rock star” of journalism. He is known for making witty predictions based on current events, and of asking questions in interesting ways. One of the phrases he often uses is:
“On a scale of 0 to 10—with 0 representing zero possibility and 10 representing metaphysical certitude—what is the chance of…?”
His hilarious style and intelligent views have become the inspiration for many parodies, the most popular of which is Dana Carvey of Saturday Night Live. McLaughlin himself appeared as the Grim Reaper in an SNL sketch that parodied his show.
6. John Cameron Swayze: Glad we could get together
John Cameron Swayze worked for the for NBC network in the 1950s.
Another phrase he made popular was “Takes a licking and keeps on ticking” when he was the commercial spokesperson for Timex Watch Company.
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