PROFILE:
SUZIE HUMPHREYS
AND WFAA-TV's
"NEWS 8 ETC..."
PART 1
SKIP TO PART
2 - TRIBUTES TO DON HARRIS AND GENE THOMAS HERE
.
1971 hosts
(L-R): Gene Thomas, Suzie Humphreys, Don Harris
"News 8 etc..." was a bold undertaking in the history of local television. The show was a live, local morning program produced for, and shown exclusively on, WFAA-Channel 8 in Dallas. It was on the air for one-and-a-half hours each weekday from January 12, 1970 to May 3, 1974. (It continued in a somewhat similar form as "The AM Show" and "AM" thereafter until early 1978.) The original hosts, Don Harris and Suzie Humphreys, were also the producers, editors and writers, and worked without cue cards or even a TelePrompTer. In an exclusive interview with webmaster Mike Shannon, Suzie Humphreys shared her reflections about the show and the emotional experience that it became...from being the best job she ever had, to becoming a revolving door of co-hosts, and dealing with the untimely deaths of her friends and co-hosts Gene Thomas and Don Harris.
NEW! See early WFAA-TV promos for "News 8 etc..." here!
One could spot these on a few
bumpers around town!
But the program was not afraid of controversy. In April, 1970, Don and Suzie queried viewers about the possibility of legalized abortions (which were still illegal at that time, but certainly a hot-button topic.) Dallas Morning News TV writer Harry Bowman wrote, "Almost before (the show) signed off the air (that day,) the switchboard at WFAA-TV had taken over 40 calls, and the next day's mail was loaded with letters from viewers who were reacting...Most of the writers took a stern, negative view toward liberalizing the abortion laws."
NEW! Gene Thomas interviews Suzie Humphreys at the "Walk for Development" event on April 25, 1970 here, starting at 3:36
The Dallas
Morning News announced the arrival of "News 8 etc..." in a December 20,
1969 article.
The "Mr.
Peppermint" show was relegated to weekends after "etc..." premiered, after
a nice nine-year weekday run on WFAA
NEW!
Don and Suzie display WFAA-TV's award for "Outstanding Programming" from
TV Radio Mirror magazine here
(no audio)
.
Gene Thomas
was the newscaster assigned to "News 8 etc..." later in 1970. "Then
there was a three-way chemistry now that took place, because we were all
different in our own ways," Suzie explained in 1989. "Each one of
us had something different to bring to the show...and what a show it really
was."
.
"And our
relationship was that it was strictly on the air, and so it was fresh...it
wasn't 'Ken and Barbie'...these were real people."
But Gene's reservations about wrestling the tiger were correct: Suzie found out a few weeks later that the same tiger had mauled his trainer.
.
L:
Suzie shocks Gene and Don by taking off her skirt on live TV!
R:
Suzie and Don get made-up as clowns for the "Greatest Show on Earth" in
1971.
Show photographer
Doug Freeman is on the left
Suzie and
John Criswell in a promotional shot for "etc..."'s
successor,
"The AM Show," in May, 1974. The new show kicked
off its
first week with big-name guests like former Texas governor
John Connally
and singer Peggy Lee
One "News
8 etc..." feature developed after Don's departure was what later became
John Criswell's popular "Wednesday's Child" segment on News 8. "It
was our project before it was John Criswell's," Suzie explained.
"While we didn't dedicate the segment to a certain day of the week, it
had essentially the same purpose...to feature children in need of adoption."
The children were typically living in foster homes, and adoptions were
coordinated through the local Department of Human Services. Criswell
began his own feature on Channel 8 in 1977, as part of "etc..." successor,
"AM," and "Wednesday's Child" was introduced as a weekly feature on WFAA's
newscasts in September, 1980. The effort was very successful:
In a published, 1988 interview with webmaster Mike Shannon, Criswell stated
that the "Wednesday's Child" program had placed over 450 featured children
since 1980, with over 1,700 other children being placed due to the excess
of families that called in about a specific featured child. "Wednesday's
Child" continues at WFAA today, produced by anchor Gloria Campos from 1989
(when Criswell departed the station for KDFW-Channel 4) until 2011.
Hosting duties were assumed by WFAA news anchor and lifelong Dallasite
Cynthia "Izzy" Izaguirre, who continues the tradition today.
.
..
(L) Suzie
prepares for a western play, to be presented on "etc..." She is aided
by the late Jim Pratt (C; longtime co-host with the late Mike Shapiro
on WFAA's
"Let Me Speak to the Manager"/"Inside Television;) (R) The new "AM Show"
set. Roberta Hammond had already taken over
co-hosting
duties in this photo
.
NEW! Suzie interviews legendary musician Jose Feliciano for "The AM Show" in August, 1974 here
During the 1980s, the station programmed a local morning newscast before "Good Morning America," and followed it with a syndicated newsmagazine ("Hour Magazine," for one) instead.
The "Good
Morning Texas" set in 2003, located in the station's Studio A,
arranged
in the very same location and placement as "News 8 etc..."
(Photo credit:
Your webmaster, Mike Shannon, during my first week as "News 8"s evening
traffic anchor!)
On September 12, 1994, WFAA introduced "Good Morning Texas," perhaps the closest attempt at re-creating "News 8 etc..." A local, live, hour-long program, the show features a newsmagazine format, complete with a living room-styled interview area, kitchen and general approach. It continues today and has featured hosts such as Scott Sams, Deborah Duncan, Debbie Denmon, Todd Whitthorne, Amy Vanderof, Michael Rey, Brenda Teele, Phillip Wilburn, Rob McCollum, Hannah Davis, actor Ty Treadway, Ann McGarry, Alanna Sarabia and the late Paula McClure. In 2007, the show abandoned its living room environs for new digs at Channel 8's Victory Park studios, using many of the same sets and fixtures seen on WFAA's daily newscasts. As the years passed, "GMT" devolved into what amounts to a paid infomercial, hosting multiple daily guests who pay a fee in order to hawk their wares or services on the show, while the program itself continues under the guise of a newsmagazine.
Suzie, of course, went on to enormous popularity as Ron Chapman's longtime "Girl-About-Town" on KVIL-AM/FM's morning show from June, 1976, until 1995. Suzie was initially an airborne reporter, but was later given her trademark "KVIL-o-Van" (bearing the vanity plate, "SOOZIE.") Her efforts were honored in 2004 as an inductee to the Texas Radio Hall of Fame. (Her cohort, Ron Chapman, who clocked more than 45 successful years on local radio and television [including WFAA-TV,] died in 2021.) As an airborne traffic reporter at KVIL, Humphreys narrowly escaped certain death on May 20, 1977, after the station's helicopter (a Bell 47) had dropped her off at the Dallas's Northpark Inn helipad only minutes earlier, ran out of gas halfway back to Love Field. It crashed upside-down behind 4029 Colgate in University Park, killing substitute pilot Elliott Cohn. Suzie, who was pregnant at the time with son Joshua (born the following August,) complained of nausea and had the chopper land at Northpark. Cohn, who had only been with the company for two weeks, was filling in for his boss, Ken Montgomery, who normally piloted the KVIL aircraft. With a change in helicopter vendors early the next year, Ken and Suzie grounded themselves for good on March 24, 1978, with Suzie taking to the van permanently thereafter. (Ken resumed flying for other traffic services later; he most recently transported WBAP's Laura Houston. Montgomery died in 2019.)
Suzie Humphreys,
today
Suzie has acted in stage productions of "Last of the Red Hot Lovers," "Perils of Pecos" (with Donald O'Connor,) "Bottoms Up," and at Dallas' Crystal Palace in "I Do, I Do;" and in the movies "Crisis at Central High," "Return of Josey Wales" and "Deep in the Heart." She was also featured frequently on numerous TV commercials in the 1960s.
In recent years, Suzie took her exceptional gift of gab to a new level as a highly sought-after motivational speaker, and was recognized for her outstanding efforts by the National Speakers Association in 2002 with an induction to the Speakers Hall of Fame. She is also a breast cancer survivor since 2003, and would frankly discuss her struggle and success in some of her speeches.
.
Suzie's
triumphant return to television in 2012: (L) Joined in a candid moment
on "The Texas Daily" by Midge Hill [L] and Jeff Brady [R.]
(R) As co-host
and 'grande dame' of "The Broadcast"
But Suzie wasn't done with television just yet! Between 2012 and 2014, she was a frequent co-host of the newsmagazine "The Texas Daily," for upstart DFW TV station KTXD-Channel 47. The program featured other retired TV news notables from across the local dial, including John Criswell, Troy Dungan, Iola Johnson, Tracy Rowlett, John Sparks, Gary Cogill, Phyllis Watson, Jolene DeVito, Midge Hill, Debbie Denmon, Robert Riggs, Scott Murray, Rebecca Aguilar, Don Wall, Jeff Brady and others. Concurrently, Suzie co-hosted a lifestyle/newsmagazine program entititled, "The Broadcast" (AKA "D [Magazine]: The Broadcast,") also for KTXD. Both programs were eventually syndicated to a group of co-owned TV stations across the state.
After several years spent living in the Texas Hill Country, Suzie has retired and re-settled in the Dallas-Fort Worth area as of 2021. Still wondrously smart, beautiful, effervescent and funny, Suzie has finally taken a much-deserved break!
..
L:
Suzie and her famous "KVIL-o-Van" (pronounced, "K-V-I-Yellow Van") in a
station ad.
C:
Suzie with (late) former longtime KVIL morning show host Ron Chapman.
R: Suzie with webmaster Mike Shannon
.
Find out
more about "News 8 etc..." and Suzie's long career in radio and television,
and enjoy her
unique take
on life! Her 2005 book, "If All Else Fails...Laugh!" is available
here.
Her wonderful,
motivational
six-disc CD set, "Laugh, Love and Learn," can be found here
This entire website and its contents are copyright 1984-2023 Mike Shannon. Images are copyright of their respective owners: All black-and-white photos are courtesy of Suzie Humphreys, except the final photo of Don Harris, which is credited to NBC and the late Bob Brown. Color screenshots are credited to WFAA-TV, Dallas. Obituaries and news reports are credited to the Dallas Times Herald, the Dallas Morning News and the Eastfield (College) EtCetera. KVIL-AM/FM photos are credited to former station owner Infinity Broadcasting, Inc. Print ad reproduction is credited to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. If you feel your copyright is being infringed upon by its appearance in this website, please email me and it will be removed or credited properly. I am not responsible for errors, omissions, incomplete information, misrepresentations or dead links. Information was gleaned from newspapers, broadcasting yearbooks, magazines, personal recollection, recollections of others and the like. Copying of any or all information or images for use on other websites, in print or for other purposes, is prohibited without permission. Links are provided for the user's convenience; I claim no responsibility for the contents, accuracy or relevance of other sites that may be linked to from this site. This entire website is considered a not-for-profit "fan site," to be enjoyed for entertainment and informational purposes only. Usage of this site and/or any sites, sub-sites or pages or images contained within, however accessed, constitutes your agreement to these Terms and Conditions. If you do not agree to these Terms and Conditions, click here and you will be taken elsewhere. Proceeds from advertising & duplication services are directly used for site maintenance, hosting fees and research costs.