Honoring "The Master"
Either I'm getting old or journalism schools aren't doing their job. Or maybe both. Regardless, there are young TV reporters out there who have never heard of Charles Kuralt. I first met one of these deprived 20-somethings at a TV station in Los Angeles. Then I met another in Minnesota. How can you teach someone the art of TV story telling without at least mentioning the master?! And if young TV reporters don't know the name, imagine the blank stares I would get from the rest of their generation.
That was my main reason for wanting to do this series of updates on Kuralt classics we're calling, "On the Road … Again." But it was also an excuse for me to immerse myself in the stories I grew up with. My family idolized Kuralt. He did such a remarkable job capturing the quirks and characters of America. To select the stories we're updating this month, we went through almost all his old stories. Many I'd seen. Some I missed. We pulled a few favorites and my assistant, Emily Rand, started calling to see what, if anything, was new. As you might expect, many of the people Kuralt interviewed are no longer with us. But a few are still around. And some of those had surprisingly great, new stories to tell.
If you remember Kuralt, you can watch and enjoy him again.
If you don't remember Kuralt, I suggest you Wikipedia him first … then watch and enjoy him for the first time.
