PROFILE:
SUZIE HUMPHREYS
AND WFAA-TV's "NEWS 8 ETC..."
PART 1

SKIP TO PART 2 - TRIBUTES TO DON HARRIS AND GENE THOMAS HERE
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1971 hosts (L-R):  Gene Thomas, Suzie Humphreys, Don Harris
(photo credit:  Suzie Humphreys collection)

"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.

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L:  Comedian Pat Paulsen advertises the coming of "News 8 etc..."  C:  Suzie and Don on the show's premiere,  R:  Newspaper ad, 1971
(Credits:  L, C:  WFAA-TV.  R:  Dallas Morning News)

NEW!  VIDEO:  See early WFAA-TV promos for "News 8 etc..." here!

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 in nearly all states, 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!  VIDEO:  Gene Thomas interviews Suzie Humphreys at the "Walk for Development" event on April 25, 1970 here, starting at 3:36

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L:  The late actor/singer Richard Harris with Suzie.  "Lying on the carpet was a bond-with-
the-audience technique Harris was using in his stage show at the time," Suzie explains.
C:  Late presidential candidate George McGovern with Gene, August 17, 1971.
R:  Suzie with the late actor and swimming champion Buster Crabbe, September 24, 1970
(photo credits:  Suzie Humphreys collection)

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L:  Don with late Egyptian actor Omar Sharif ("Lawrence of Arabia,") February 11, 1970.
C:  Suzie with the late actor Yul Brynner, October 11, 1971.
R: The late actress and Maxim Coffee spokesperson Patricia Neal with Suzie
(photo credits:  Suzie Humphreys collection)

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L:  Suzie with late actor and football great Jim Brown.  C:  The late singer Robert Goulet, early 1970.
R:  Suzie, the late Alvin "Junior" Samples of "Hee Haw," Gene
(L, R photo credits:  Suzie Humphreys collection.  Center photo credit:  WFAA-TV)
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Some high-profile guests were presented with
these gold-encrusted, ceramic steins as a thank-you
(photo credit:  Mike Shannon collection, from the estate of Camille Keith)

Suzie described how the show came together: "I met a man that was going to produce the show and was in charge of it, by the name of Don Harris."  Don had just started working for Channel 8 in their news department a month earlier, in December, 1969, and shared anchor duties with Murphy Martin and Bob Gooding.  While WFAA's program director George Milner devised the show's concept, Don was responsible for creating the 'homey' feeling of the show's set, and came up with the idea of the round oak table that was the centerpiece of the show.  (The Spanish arches in the background were no doubt inspired by "The Tonight Show"s late 1960s set.)  Suzie fondly recalls the magical chemistry between her and Don that made the show special to her, and to the viewers.  Suzie and Don held down hosting duties for the first 20 months of the show.

NEW!  Video of Don and Suzie display WFAA-TV's award for "Outstanding Programming" from TV Radio Mirror magazine here (no audio)
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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."
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"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."

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Surprise!  Gene shows up on stage, unaware that he'll be wrestling a 700-pound tiger that day!
Gene said afterwards, "It's not a wrestling match, it's an execution!"
(photo credits: L, WFAA-TV.  R, Suzie Humphreys collection)

In one of the most hilarious segments aired on "News 8 etc...," Gene Thomas wrestled a tiger!  Suzie explained:  "Gene marches into the studio, live on television, and there is a 700-pound Bengal tiger lying there, and he went, 'Whaaat???'  Don started laughing, and I started laughing, and Don says, 'You're going to wrestle the tiger!'
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"It was one of the funniest bits, because it was live, he didn't know anything about it, and that's the way he was, he just went with it...that's the way all of us did."

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.

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L:  Suzie and the gang share a laugh.
R:  Still reeling after the pie-in-the-face, the show breaks for a commercial
(photo credits: WFAA-TV)

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L:  A visitor promotes the "Sell America" event's forthcoming tour through Dallas in February, 1970, starring Art Linkletter.
R:  The crew of "etc..." gathers for a photo
(photo credits:  Suzie Humphreys collection)

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 (just before 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.  Meanwhile, John Criswell defected to KDFW in 1990 and created a similar feature, "Criswell's Kids," there.
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After Gene Thomas' death in October, 1971, the show became a revolving door of co-hosts
for Suzie:  Travis Linn (L,) Jerry Park (C,) and Rosser McDonald (R)...
(photo credits:  L, University of Nevada-Reno; C, R, Suzie Humphreys collection)
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Left:  Later co-hosts included Rene Castilla (L) and a young John Criswell (R;) Suzie is in the center.
Right:  Some of the "etc..." cast and crew with guest:  From left, Bob Cardenas (floor crew chief; retired in 2006 as production manager at WFAA,)
Clyde Chappell (production manager,) the late Don Easterwood (audio engineer,) Suzie, Shirley Spitler (assistant to Don Harris; was later station manager,)
Murray Campbell (floor crew; standing, with vest,) the late Bob Steele (show guest; was a former B-western cowboy star,) John "Sparky" Sparks (floor crew,
standing with thumb in belt; was later a WFAA investigative reporter and newscast producer, and eventually became the executive producer for investigations
and political coverage with KTVT-TV,) the late Jack Van Roy (weatherman) and the late Ed Hogan (staff announcer and host of "Dialing for Dollars.")
Not pictured: Late station publicist Camille Keith
(photo credits: L, Suzie Humphreys Collection.  R, Ed Hogan Collection, with special thanks to John Sparks for identifying everyone!)

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(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
(photo credits:  L, C - Suzie Humphreys collection; R - Dallas Morning News)
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NEW!  VIDEO:  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.

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 set at the station's Communications Center hub downtown for new digs at Channel 8's Victory Park studios, using many of the same sets and fixtures seen on WFAA's daily newscasts; the Victory studios were vacated in early 2022, and all operations there (including newscasts) returned home to Communications Center.  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) made an unplanned landing at Dallas's Northpark Inn helipad only minutes earlier to drop off Suzie...and ran out of gas halfway back to the base at Love Field.  The chopper crashed upside-down behind 4029 Colgate in University Park, killing young substitute pilot Elliott Cohn.  Suzie, who was pregnant at the time with son Joshua (born three months later in August,) complained of nausea and requested that the pilot make a detour and land at Northpark.  Cohn, who had only been with the company two weeks, was filling in for his boss, Ken Montgomery, who normally piloted the KVIL aircraft...as Ken had stepped in another craft to cover for an absent pilot.  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, a former Vietnam War pilot with an impeccable safety record, died in 2019.)

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 struggles and successes in some of her speeches.

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 her former "News 8 etc..." co-host John Criswell, along with 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!