March 10, 1980—With more than two decades behind him of offering cockeyed optimism on radio and TV, Willard Scott took his act to the national level as weather forecaster of NBC’s morning Today Show.
In the years since, he has become a kind of Zelig with a happy face, popping up in nearly every corner of the globe with inexhaustible doses of cheer: at state fairs, fundraising events, parties, civic occasions, Thanksgiving Day parades, as well as on the Orient Express, in Rome, South America, Australia and China.
Even now, as a substitute weather reporter on Today, Scott is likely to show up in faraway places. His impact has been felt everywhere, but nowhere, I will argue, as much as at the U.S. Census Bureau.
It’s easy to see why. Whenever longer U.S. longevity rates are discussed, one explanation you invariably hear is about the better medical care that people receive now than in the past.
Don’t you believe it.
All those medications that doctors prescribe for seniors—you really think they’re working in perfect sync with each other? You think that doctors have perfect control of these interactions? Please.
No, what’s happening is this: those longevity rates are better tugged upwards over the long-term by lower infant mortality rates and by centenarians, the fastest-growing age cohort. Last July, reports from the Census Bureau and the National Institute on Aging indicated that the number of people worldwide living to be over 100 grew from a few thousand in 1950 to more than 340,000 today, with most of those in Japan and the U.S. As for the future: in the U.S., centenarians are projected to grow from 75,000 today to nearly 600,000 by mid-century.
Why all those senior senior citizens? Good God, people, isn’t it obvious? It’s the chance to appear on The Today Show, with Willard Scott rewarding you for a life well-lived by flashing your picture around the world and telling everyone some nice wholesome little details about you.
It all began innocently enough in 1983, when a viewer persuaded Scott to deliver an on-air birthday greeting to his mother, who had just passed her 100th birthday.
That one little episode has led, 27 years later, to the following state of affairs described on the Today Show’s Web site: “Please note that Willard gets many more requests than he can fulfill on the air.”
Well, I shouldn’t wonder!
Today Show producers probably weren’t expecting something exactly like this when they hired Scott, but they had good reason to believe that his jolly, toupee-wearing, large-and-in-charge persona would get people watching. After all, this was the same guy who, with Ed Walter, formed the DC radio duo the Pep Boys; who played Bozo the Clown for a while on the local station; and appeared in the first Ronald McDonald TV commercials (locally, not nationally) in 1963.
Willard has been so upbeat over the years that if he were around early in the 20th century, he’d probably tell a little Kansas girl named Dorothy not to worry her pretty little head about that nasty ol’ twister, and keep singing that song of hers he liked, “Over the Rainbow.”
Not everyone has cottoned to all of this. One dissenter was onetime Today co-host Bryant Gumbel, who groused in an infamous 1989 memo to management: “This guy is killing us, and no one's even trying to rein him in."
Now, I can’t say that the cranky co-host was way off the mark about Scott. After all, I wasn’t exactly a big fan of a guy who appeared on camera dressed as Carmen Miranda. But Gumbel’s horizon-wide critique encompassed virtually everyone on the show except the fellow in his own mirror.
Maybe Gumbel was jealous of the fact that, despite making more money than the show’s weatherman, Scott still received more fan mail than himself and co-host Jane Pauley combined. But whatever Gumbel's motivation, viewers soon let him know, in no uncertain terms, that though they could abide hosts who were smart and serious, they drew the line at self-important.
When I get up in the morning, I’m grouchy, and I’m not any better, no matter how strenuous the labors of TV newscasters, when I walk out the door for work. But give Willard credit: he’s never taken himself too seriously.
I’ll take that any day of the week over the assorted prima donnas who’ve appeared on the Today Show over the years.
In the years since, he has become a kind of Zelig with a happy face, popping up in nearly every corner of the globe with inexhaustible doses of cheer: at state fairs, fundraising events, parties, civic occasions, Thanksgiving Day parades, as well as on the Orient Express, in Rome, South America, Australia and China.
Even now, as a substitute weather reporter on Today, Scott is likely to show up in faraway places. His impact has been felt everywhere, but nowhere, I will argue, as much as at the U.S. Census Bureau.
It’s easy to see why. Whenever longer U.S. longevity rates are discussed, one explanation you invariably hear is about the better medical care that people receive now than in the past.
Don’t you believe it.
All those medications that doctors prescribe for seniors—you really think they’re working in perfect sync with each other? You think that doctors have perfect control of these interactions? Please.
No, what’s happening is this: those longevity rates are better tugged upwards over the long-term by lower infant mortality rates and by centenarians, the fastest-growing age cohort. Last July, reports from the Census Bureau and the National Institute on Aging indicated that the number of people worldwide living to be over 100 grew from a few thousand in 1950 to more than 340,000 today, with most of those in Japan and the U.S. As for the future: in the U.S., centenarians are projected to grow from 75,000 today to nearly 600,000 by mid-century.
Why all those senior senior citizens? Good God, people, isn’t it obvious? It’s the chance to appear on The Today Show, with Willard Scott rewarding you for a life well-lived by flashing your picture around the world and telling everyone some nice wholesome little details about you.
It all began innocently enough in 1983, when a viewer persuaded Scott to deliver an on-air birthday greeting to his mother, who had just passed her 100th birthday.
That one little episode has led, 27 years later, to the following state of affairs described on the Today Show’s Web site: “Please note that Willard gets many more requests than he can fulfill on the air.”
Well, I shouldn’t wonder!
Today Show producers probably weren’t expecting something exactly like this when they hired Scott, but they had good reason to believe that his jolly, toupee-wearing, large-and-in-charge persona would get people watching. After all, this was the same guy who, with Ed Walter, formed the DC radio duo the Pep Boys; who played Bozo the Clown for a while on the local station; and appeared in the first Ronald McDonald TV commercials (locally, not nationally) in 1963.
Willard has been so upbeat over the years that if he were around early in the 20th century, he’d probably tell a little Kansas girl named Dorothy not to worry her pretty little head about that nasty ol’ twister, and keep singing that song of hers he liked, “Over the Rainbow.”
Not everyone has cottoned to all of this. One dissenter was onetime Today co-host Bryant Gumbel, who groused in an infamous 1989 memo to management: “This guy is killing us, and no one's even trying to rein him in."
Now, I can’t say that the cranky co-host was way off the mark about Scott. After all, I wasn’t exactly a big fan of a guy who appeared on camera dressed as Carmen Miranda. But Gumbel’s horizon-wide critique encompassed virtually everyone on the show except the fellow in his own mirror.
Maybe Gumbel was jealous of the fact that, despite making more money than the show’s weatherman, Scott still received more fan mail than himself and co-host Jane Pauley combined. But whatever Gumbel's motivation, viewers soon let him know, in no uncertain terms, that though they could abide hosts who were smart and serious, they drew the line at self-important.
When I get up in the morning, I’m grouchy, and I’m not any better, no matter how strenuous the labors of TV newscasters, when I walk out the door for work. But give Willard credit: he’s never taken himself too seriously.
I’ll take that any day of the week over the assorted prima donnas who’ve appeared on the Today Show over the years.
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