The Mary Tyler Moore Show/Trivia: Difference between revisions

* [[Write Who You Know]]: Ted Baxter was actually inspired by real life anchorman Jerry Dunphy of CBS Los Angeles O&O KNXT, who later also provided the inspiration for Kent Brockman on Brooks's ''[[The Simpsons]]''. <ref>Ironically, however, in real life, Dunphy was actually a very competent, very professional anchorman. In fact, when he anchored KNXT's newscasts, titled ''The Big News'' for 6:00 PM newscasts, and ''24 Hours'' for 11:00 PM newscasts, the programs generally attracted a quarter of Los Angeles television owners, ratings unheard of in the market. Indeed, Dunphy was so professional and so popular, that when KNXT unceremoniously fired him in 1975 in order to reshape their newscasts to contain a faster-paced, ''Eyewitness News'' type format, their ratings crashed to last place and have remained in last place to this very day. In addition, to add insult to injury, immediately after KNXT fired him, rival station KABC immediately hired him to be their chief anchorman, causing their news ratings to skyrocket to #1 in the process. Dunphy was also well loved behind the scenes as well. Near the end of his career, he was anchoring the main news for independent station KCAL, when he died of a heart attack on his way to work on May 20, 2002. On that day's 9:00 PM newscast, KCAL co-anchor Pat Harvey, fighting back tears, announced his death: "Los Angeles has forever changed tonight, because Jerry Dunphy will never come into your home again. Our beloved anchorman and friend has died. Jerry touched the lives of generations of Angelenos for more than 40 years; a beacon of truth and trust, and for all to turn to in good times and in bad."</ref>