#mark mcewen

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Ya’ll remember year ago when I brought up CBS always failing at a morning program in the 80s with Phyllis George ? There was one chapter I never get a chance to bring up, and now that we lost Bob Saget, I have to right now.

The Morning Program debuted on January 12, 1987, about a year and a half after the whole Phyllis George fiasco. I’m reading an early New York Times preview right before the show premiered, and the show sounds like an absolute circus.

There will be personal finance segments, a segment called “Living Better” that will deal with relationships, and a segment called “Sensible Shopper,” slotted at the end of each show on the premise that by then, most viewers will be women who are staying at home. There will be a heavy emphasis on comedy (underscored by the fact that David Steinberg, the comedian, was hired to direct the show’s on-air promotions) centered in a regular feature called “The Comedy Club,” featuring brief portions of stand-up comedy acts. Also, Mr. Saget will make little comedy films, a la the “Mr. Mike” segments from the old “Saturday Night Live” show. (In a sample shown to affiliates, Mr. Saget screens a tape of his own wedding, with a running commentary: “It was a Jewish wedding. There was a $2 cover charge.”) The show will be a haven for celebrities, with a gossip columnist, a daily star interview (Frank Sinatra is said to be already booked) and a segment called “Teachers,” which will have celebrities appearing with teachers who made a difference in their lives
[…]
And then, there is the “Personals” segment. In the sample segment shown to affiliates, a young man named Jim appears on screen and proclaims, “I’m looking for an energetic, outgoing and fun-loving woman with whom I can share candlelight dinners, drives along the coast and wild nights on the town … .” Mate-hunters will communicate by mail, through a special post-office box.
The feature raises questions that CBS never had to consider when it was in the news business in the morning. At a recent news conference to announce the format, a reporter asked Mr. Shanks, “Say you do some matching up of people and let’s say some kook has responded to that and somebody is murdered or hurt. Who is responsible?” Mr. Shanks assured the reporter that CBS has “done everything we prudently can do to prevent that.” 1

The teacher segment sounds adorable?

So the first episode is on YouTube, yay. That never happens. I was wondering why host Mariette sounded so familiar, I was thinking “is she the lady from those old Polaroid commercials?”

Well, she answered my question!

I tried for the life of me to understand that Bob was saying when Mariette introduced him. Something like “I did everything you told me. Mariette, I dusted your kids, and sucked the lint out of your dressing room.”

I feel like this is so some sort of foreshadowing to Danny Tanner’s clean freak tendencies on Full House.

At around 7:18 he introduces a segment called “The Comedy Club” and sings a theme song reminiscent of the Mickey Mouse Club. You thought Comedy Network/Central was the first to show stand up comedy? Nope, you had CBS’ Morning Program?ok. This is like back in the day when there was after work drive radio programs and they would program little stand up comedy bits. I still remember my local rock station playing Jon Stewart’s “dogs going to the vet bit” inbetween traffic and music.

Like, thirty minutes in there’s a lame “Happy Anniversary” bit. Really? REALLY?

I adore Mark McEwen’s lil weather guys he pins to the map! Spoiler alert, but he was the only one that remained unscathed from this experiment. He was on CBS’ morning shows until 2002. I think on YouTube, he’s probably best known as the guy who says “It’s too quiet … we like quiet..unless its tooquiet” on The Early Show the morning of 9/11.

Fast forward to about 58 minutes in … THE SHOW HAS A DOG.

Reviews were not good. Here’s part of the New York Times review where they bring up Daisy the dog!

What was most noticeable, though, was the way Daisy took over. It was as if she were a small child who had wandered into a gathering of adults who were uncomfortable with one another. They become enthralled by the child. The gang on “The Morning Program” - Miss Hartley, Mr. Smith, Mark McEwen, who does the weather, and Bob Saget, the resident comic - became enthralled by Daisy. It was a sign that something was wrong with the show. 4

I mean, this headline from Time.Sheeesh 5

Here’s an odd clip (I’m guessing from March since the hosts are wearing green) where Bob asks the audience silly questions, like who was Captain Kangaroo’s real name–but haha all the answers are jokes. This bit tanks. Bob looks good though.

Bob knew the writing was on the wall for his time on the show when in the mornings, they would pick him up in a town car, but after work, he was on his own getting home. 2 I wonder if this episodeI found from right before Easter was near the end, because Bob doesn’t even show up until 30 minutes in.

WEARING A BIG OL I LOVE NYC EASTER BONNET.

When you and your bestie wear silly hats to cheer up.

Then he did this adorably lame bit called “this week in history”.

Bob had to go into the audience at every show. Yup, just like the Krusty quote, it was death. There’s this one guy who tries to solicit his what was it? Academy of television arts and sciences discussion on violence on TV or something? My boy shut it DOWN. Then there was a British guy who anted a nuclear free world. Ok, that’s great, but don’t go on and on.

Those two episodes are the only ones that are on YouTube. I don’t know exactly when Bob left, but it had to be sometime in the spring or early Summer for him to move to Los Angeles to start on Full House, right?

As for the show, it was announced in September of 1987 that the show as to be canceled effective on November 30th. 6