[4][7][16], Savitch's friend, WNBC anchor Sue Simmons, said in a 2013 retrospective article marking the 30th anniversary of Savitch's death, "When the books and the movie came out [after her death], they made her out to be this troubled character. Jessica’s Mother had to go to work to support the family after David’s death. As for Jessica, I couldn’t even begin to describe how messed up she was toward the end. Incidentally I found a TV movie of her life based on her book featuring Sela Ward playng Jessica.
Talent scouts and agents I talked to said in the years after she came to the network, they were flooded with Jessica Savitch clones, and that cool authority she projected, that look of being attractive and at the same time being very in charge, that package that she put together was what young women modeled themselves after.”.
Jessica Savitch seemed to have the world at her fingers. (Okay, enough with the car detailing metaphors.). Savitch’s family and a group of her friends later sued the New York Post (whose insurance covered the leased car Fischbein was driving), Fischbein, the restaurant, Chez Odette, and the state of Pennsylvania for damages in Savitch’s death. Savitch's hiring by NBC was part of a controversial trend for networks to hire high-profile news presenters, including physically attractive women, who appealed to the viewing public but lacked significant past reporting experience.
They resumed production of the Oldsmobile, but have not manufactured the Pontiac for several years. The station had also been ordered to hire a female reporter in order to avoid any legal challenge to its broadcast license based on gender discrimination.
Now you see a lot of hair, cleavage, costuming and posturing.
Mort Crim Co-Anchor Philadelphia Station.
Woodward and Bernestein were rock stars in investigative journalism circles and who didn’t want to bang on an old typewriter with a cigarette hanging out of their mouth while itching to blow open the next political scandal? That would seem to make sense if they’re attached to events in the building rather than being buried beneath it. Curbside Review: 2020 Subaru Outback Onyx Edition XT – The Boost Is Back, Baby!
By 1983, Savitch was anxious about her job and showing signs of emotional instability, and NBC was beginning to shift its focus to other anchors, particularly the newly hired Connie Chung.
He was lighting a cigar! In 1976, Savitch came to the attention of NBC executives while reporting from a Presidential campaign debate between President Gerald Ford and Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter held in Philadelphia at the Walnut Street Theatre.
In 1980 she was elected to the Ithaca College Board of Trustees. The Bonneville version was kind of a rare bird, actually, only produced for 1982-83.
Dinner and Spirits: A Guide to America’s Most Haunted Restaurants, Taverns, and Inns, Coronavirus: Why You Must Not Believe Everything You Read on the Internet, The Two-Step Flow Theory & the “War of the Worlds”, How Brands Can Fix the Relationship Between Platforms, Audiences, and Media Companies (Hint: It’s…, How We Accidentally Wrote Our Most Popular Story Yet and What We Learned in the Process. Since we are visiting a place where political correctness really was moot, I’d like to mention it’s refreshing to see a woman’s name on the byline here. She was pretty important in American news reporting at the time – Barbara Walters was about the only female who pulled better ratings. In 2006, the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia listed Savitch into their Hall of Fame. Although Kershaw and Savitch vowed to move up together in the News Industry, Philadelphia came calling for Jessica and she signed a contract before asking for Ron’s approval. Ron Kershaw was her relationship “kryptonite”. Despite these issues, she was still featured as a highly visible podium reporter at the 1980 Republican and Democratic conventions due to her popularity with viewers. She was the network's second woman to anchor a weekend national newscast; Catherine Mackin had previously anchored NBC's Sunday evening newscast beginning in December 1976, before she left for ABC News the following year. She lost her father in 1959 when she was just 12. Just about every journalism student at that time. She was 36 at the time of her death. When Jessica Savitch, dubbed NBC’s Golden Girl for her cool, blond professionalism, appeared before the cameras on the evening of Oct. 3, 1983, she seemed as unflappable as ever. Savitch had a long-term intermittent relationship over many years with TV news executive Ron Kershaw. He said that Miss Savitch had suffered a slight head injury, but it did not contribute to her death. When Kershaw found out about Jessica’s accident witnesses stated he went to the scene but they had already removed her body. This would clearly indicate the post is a work in progress. He had the two Cutlasses and the Pontiac Bonneville version. CC has very high standards on the automotive details, so that is my only beef with it. Her second marriage in March 1981 to Dr. Donald Payne, her gynecologist, lasted only a few months. However, the plot of the movie was substantially changed to become a love story quite different from Savitch's life. [22], Jessica Savitch published her own autobiography, Anchorwoman, in 1982. How I dealt with it, what led up to it, what happened, is mine to know, mine to work through, and mine to explain only to when it impacts on my work. All the cars I ever had from Olds were decent and reliable, except the last one. Despite her lack of broadcast news experience, she was hired by KHOU-TV in Houston as the station's first female reporter. Savitch, Fischbein and her beloved dog Chewy, a Siberian husky, all drowned. In an interview with Bill Boggs on a show self entitled, he asked Jessica about having both a career and having a family to which she answered; As she explained on the David Letterman show in 1983 the book “Anchorwoman” was not autobiographical or a “how to” book. Ms. Savitch (NOT Savage as some have called her) was in the back seat with her dog. Due to a heavy rain storm the canal was filled with water. While at KYW, Savitch also won recognition for her multi-part feature stories on unusual (for that time) subjects such as rape and childbirth, the latter of which featured a live television broadcast of a birth during the holiday season.
While in high school in Atlantic City, Savitch got a job co-hosting a show for teenagers on radio station WOND in Pleasantville, New Jersey.
She grew up, at times slightly impoverished, and had to fight to go to college and study broadcasting.
Savitch had a long-term intermittent relationship over many years with TV news executive Ron Kershaw. In 1995, Jessica’s biography was adapted into a made for TV movie ‘Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story’. She lost a few miles per hour off her happiness.