Huell Howser

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Huell's image on a milk bottle

Huell Burnley Howser (b. October 18, 1945 in Gallatin, Tennessee) is the host of several travel and human interest series produced by the Los Angeles PBS affiliate KCET.

Howser is best known as the host of the PBS travel series, California's Gold. The show tours historical and cultural sites in California as Howser investigates and conducts informal interviews with small ethnic groups, local residents, business owners, tour guides and docents, curators, experts, and so on, walking along with them and the cameraman (whom he usually refers to by name, including Luis, Troye, or Cameron). The production of the series is generally low-key but because of Howser's affable on-air personality and his Southern drawl, it is still enjoyable to many public station viewers. Howser is popularly known by his trademark exclamation "That's amazing!" and other expressions, such as "Oh it's beautiful!". Also memorable is his closing line "...and it is a fine example of California's Gold. S'long everybody!"

Howser hosts other similar programs such as Visiting... with Huell Howser, in which he visits several neighborhoods, including mainly unique business establishments, special local events, and ethnic communities, throughout the Greater Los Angeles Area. The AAA-sponsored one-hour program Road Trip has a similar premise to California's Gold where he visits mainly small towns and multiple destinations throughout the state of California. Other programs include Our Neighborhoods (profiling communities in Los Angeles), The Bench (focusing on informal interviews with interesting people), and various specials.

[edit] Career

Howser conducts an interview for Visiting.

Howser was educated in Tennessee and received a bachelors degree in history from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he served as student body president. His career in television began at WSM-TV in Nashville, after serving on the staff of Senator Howard Baker (Republican-Tennessee). Howser began a series of "human interest" stories for WSM, such as interviewing the owners of pet pigs. This segment began as a way of filling out the local newscast, which had recently been expanded to an hour format for the first time and had a serious need for additional content. Howser became extremely popular in the Nashville area as the host of a popular segment on what was at that time still a market-dominant station, especially with regard to local news.

However, he became the subject of controversy in the summer of 1979. Howser did a story about how the former Tennessee Governor's Mansion was slated for demolition to make way for a Popeye's Fried Chicken outlet. In this story, he made no secret of his outrage and disgust at this development. He was ordered by station management not to make any further mention of this on the air, but ignored the order and did so anyway. At this point, he was given a thirty-day suspension. Before the suspension was over, Howser secured new employment doing essentially the same thing in a far larger market, New York, and left Nashville. He has often since stated that he might still be looking for more pet pigs around Nashville if this incident had never occurred.

After working in New York for several years, he moved to Los Angeles in 1981 to work as a reporter for KCBS-TV. He worked globally from Switzerland and Middle East to Nicaragua, and then from Nicaragua to former Soviet Union, before returning to the type of human-interest local reporting in which he initially made his mark.

Each program has its own underwriter (i.e., a public television term for a "sponsor"). For example, California's Gold is underwritten by Sempra Energy, Road Trip by the American Automobile Association, AAA, California's Golden Parks by Toyota, and California's Green (a nature-themed program) by British Petroleum. Earlier Huell Howser specials in the 1980s and early 1990s were underwritten by Southern California Edison, Southern California Gas, and the Ford Motor Company, whose sponsored episodes would show Huell driving the then newly-introduced Ford Explorer.

Several articles written by Huell Howser have appeared in Westways Magazine, of the Automobile Club of Southern California. These articles were mainly reflections of the travels in the AAA-sponsored Road Trip series.

[edit] Political stance

Howser, a Marine Corps reservist in the 1970s, opposed the Vietnam War. His appearances on local talk shows in protest of the war were partially responsible for his initial employment at WSM-TV. [1]

He seems to have been a Republican until the 1990s. At least between 1989 and 1991, he was a member of a Republican political group based in Los Angeles. He has interviewed a number of prominent Republicans, such as Mark Isler and Stu Spencer, since beginning his tenure with KCET. However, he says that he has changed a lot since starting the series and revealed his disgust with both major American political parties, as well as his empathy for illegal immigrants in a 1999 interview with the Riverside County newspaper The Press-Enterprise.

[edit] Life

In spite of interviewing other people, Howser usually avoids speaking about his private life. He is single [2] and resides in 29 Palms near Palm Springs, California as well as in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles.

[edit] Cultural references

Howser was parodied as Howell Huser in The Simpsons episode, There's Something About Marrying. In the episode, he literally falls off a turnip truck.

The name of the character Pule Houser from Histeria! is probably another reference to Howser, who often pronounces his own name similarly to "Pule Houser."

Sound clips of Howser's common sayings, such as "This is amazing!" and "Now who else has got some stories?", are frequently used as "drops" on The Adam Carolla Show on Free FM (which is based in Los Angeles). Often, Adam will gather several clips from a single episode in which the hosts will provide comedic commentary for. Prior to this, Carolla delighted in the use of drops "Now this... is wonderful!", "Oh... boy!", and "This is the grand ballroom... and it is... grand!" on his previous radio show, Loveline Carolla often argues in these segments that Huell's show could never exist in any other format other than public television. Citing it as an example of why Communism failed.

On 18 October 2006 Howser was featured in one of the top 100 YouTube videos viewed that day (in the category of News & Blogs). A citizen journalist and filmmaker named Jacob Soboroff interrupted Howser while he was filming an episode of his Downtown series at Los Angeles State Historic Park. Soboroff's video was posted to YouTube while Howser's episode at the park featured Soboroff's interruption.

[edit] Programs (titles and emphasis)

All shows are 30 minutes in duration and are broadcast during the week. Road Trip is a one hour program and is typically aired on weekends.

[edit] Series

California's Gold (1991 - present) - Landmark program
California's Golden Parks (2002 - present) - Main emphasis on visiting the state parks of California
California's Green (2004 - present) - Focuses on how start-up companies and individuals are innovatively helping to save the environment
California Missions (1993) – Huell tours and explores all 21 Spanish missions in California
California's Water (2006-Present) The series explores California’s water resources in a state that receives little or no rain for months at a time.
Palm Springs (2001 - 2002) - A tour of Huell's adopted hometown of Palm Springs, California
Road Trip (2001 - present) - Supposedly spontaneous and unplanned road trips to various small towns and other locales throughout California
Visiting... with Huell Howser (1993 - present) - A tour of historically, ethnically and culturally diverse local communities throughout the Greater Los Angeles area

[edit] Specials

Alaska - Huell explores the state of Alaska
Huell's Whale Adventure - Huell visits Baja California, Mexico on whaling trip
Huell in Russia- Huell visits Russia in 1991 right after the fall of the U.S.S.R