NEW YORK, June 17, 2007
Following In Father's Footsteps
Bill Geist Takes A Look At Children Who Grow Up To Be Like Dad
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Willie Geist has followed his dad, Sunday Morning correspondent Bill Geist into television news. (CBS)
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Melvin Glimcher is a professor at Harvard Medical School, as is his daughter Laurie. (CBS)
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Basketball great Bill Walton has a son in The NBA. (CBS)
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Bill Walton's son Luke plays for the Los Angeles Lakers. (CBS)
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Photo Essay Famous Fathers Some Hollywood youngsters have marquee names and superstar dads
Bill Geist is, of course, a giant in the broadcast industry and now his son, Willie, is following in his dad's jumbo footsteps.
Willie appears on several MSNBC programs, where he reports offbeat news stories at the end of the broadcasts — sound familiar?
He also blogs and vlogs — stuff his father doesn't even understand.
"Do you get the blog at the library? Or how does that work? I haven't quite figured out the blog myself," Bill the father said.
"And I, like, go into this room," Willie tried to explain. "I talk into a camera, and then it's on the 'interweb' right afterwards," Willie said.
"(That) is plural: the interwebs," Bill joked.
"The interwebs," Willie said. "It's on the network of interwebs."
Did Willie always want to be on television?
"Well to be honest with you, I haven't come to terms with the fact that I'm not gonna be playing for the Knicks or Yankees, so I haven't given up on those," he said.
"But you kind of couldn't get away from it in our house, because every morning you'd come down for breakfast — maybe some French toast, some pancakes," he said. "And there were these huge lights, these cameras all over the place. It's like you're walking onto the set of a movie. So, it was in your face every day. So, it was kind of inevitable, I think."
"Well, I remember mentioning to you that you should get an internship on Wall Street," Bill said. "You know, you're miserable all week, make tons of money, and just have lavish weekends and vacations."
"I didn't, you know, go into being a local news anchor [or] an investigative reporter, telling the straight news and saving you and your family from the dangers in your kitchen," Willie said. "We did, you know, the weird stuff. We went off the road."
Willie himself was about to become a father.
"I haven't come to terms with the word 'grandfather' yet," Bill said.
"You couldn't have, 'cause I haven't come to terms with being a father," Willie said.
Sooner than expected — the very next day in fact — Willie had a girl, Lucie, just in time for Father's Day.
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