Word of Mouth with Eric Burns

This episode

Word of Mouth with Eric Burns
Movietime
Late December 1989
Talk Show
VHS
B-

This "best of" covers the nine months of the show, not every episode, but quite a few.  Ellerbee is tagged for the discussion of her Maxwell House commercial.  Burns concludes with a hope that WoM can find another home, but as far as I know it didn't.  Pity, since it would've been interesting to hear the panel react to the '90s.

As for the '80s, this probably isn't the last of my shows from that decade, since the '70s keep popping up.  But this is as good a place as any to get ready for another decade summary....

Summer Sunday, U.S.A.: Woodstock

A different episode, with Andrea Mitchell, who's absent here.

Summer Sunday, U.S.A.: Woodstock
NBC
August 1984
Documentary
VHS
B-

This was repackaged in 1989 as Woodstock Remembered, but there seems to have been no effort to update the content, and towards the end we see such 1984 faces as Geraldine Ferraro and the (original) Ghostbusters.  Summer Sunday, according to Ellerbee's And So It Goes was mostly a mess, and this is somewhat unfocused, but it does have some interesting moments.  (Including with John Kerry and Julian Bond.)  I do wish the program had focused more on the music.  It's all well and good to offer background, especially on the Vietnam War and protests, and to show what people, including twentysomethings, thought fifteen years later, but the music is what brought folks to the event and is what the word "Woodstock" is mostly synonymous with.  The moment of Crosby, Stills, and Nash harmonizing is lovely, but it is just one moment.  Still, this is worth watching, partly to see how the somewhat arrogant certainty of the mid-'80s has dated as much as that of the late '60s.

Later with Bob Costas: Linda Ellerbee, Part 2

Recent Ellerbee

Later with Bob Costas: Linda Ellerbee, Part 2
NBC
August 23, 1988
Talk Show
VHS
B

Another interesting and thought-provoking discussion between Costas and Ellerbee about network and local news, including the then recent movie Broadcast News.  I'm not sure if this is the last Ellerbee appearance in my collection, but I noticed in Googling that she retired in December of 2015 after 44 years in journalism.  So she has definitely remained a survivor.  (In contrast to Bob's announced guest for the next night, Gary Coleman.)

Later with Bob Costas: Linda Ellerbee, Part 1

Ellerbee earlier in the '80s

Later with Bob Costas: Linda Ellerbee, Part 1
NBC
August 22, 1988
Talk Show
VHS
B

In the premiere of this late night show, in the former slot and studio of Ellerbee's Overnight, Costas and Ellerbee mostly talk about Jessica Savitch, but also about how Ellerbee thrived in a thin-blonde-favoring news environment.  Some of the material will be familiar to those who've read her book And So It Goes (reviewed here: http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2013/03/and-so-it-goes-adventures-in-television.html) but it's good to hear her voice and her opinions.  Costas invites her back for the next night, which I taped, although the reception was worse for some reason, so we'll find out tomorrow if there's enough intact to review.

Late Night with David Letterman: Linda Ellerbee and others

Late Night with David Letterman: Linda Ellerbee and others

1984 appearance

NBC
August 11, 1987

Talk Show

VHS
B-

Dave hosts kid inventors, has a long rambling phone conversation with a Southern car dealer, and talks with Linda E. soon after the cancellation of Our World.

Our World: All Shook Up, Autumn 1957

Our World: All Shook Up, Autumn 1957
ABC
December 18, 1986
Documentary
VHS
B

Co-hosts and co-writers Linda Ellerbee and Ray Gandolf made this too short-lived show a thought-provoking little gem then and now.  The series offered a mini-documentary each week, focusing on a specific time period, sometimes just a few days, or here a whole season.  I wish I'd been able to tape more episodes, but the reruns stopped airing soon after my boyfriend bought a VCR.  This particular episode is of course about a time that was then about as many years ago as have passed since.  It looks at the major occurrences of that fall: from Little Rock and Sputnik to Edsel and American Bandstand.  It's most interesting to see the interviews of people who were part of these stories, how Governor Faubus still stood by what he did, and how Little Richard threw his jewelry in the ocean after hearing about Sputnik.