Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Here's a "Chicago People" profile of veteran TV critic Morry Roth by political reporter Hugh Hill on Eyewitness News on WLS Channel 7. Our thanks to Jason Roth, who saved this tape of the news story on his dad. His remembrances:
"This was an Eyewitness News segment on my late father Morry Roth, longtime Midwest bureau chief for Variety, on the occasion of his 20th year at the paper. He’d remain there another 7 years before Variety was acquired by a publishing conglomerate that essentially shut down the bureau.
He was a sometimes divisive but beloved local figure who was able to forge strong relationships with local media players but didn’t pull punches in his reporting. He was an effusive advocate for Chicago, giving local cultural institutions like Second City, Steppenwolf, and Oprah some of their first national exposure at a time when the coastal entertainment elite scoffed at anything from flyover country. I once watched Richard Kind come bounding across O’Hare to shake his hand and thank him for helping give him his first big breaks. Another time I watched a bag boy at Treasure Island on Wells grouse to him that SNL had come in and pilfered the entire cast of Second City for its first season - except him. That bag boy was Bill Murray.
Like any good ink-stained Windy City wretch at the time, he was a regular at downtown haunts like Billy Goat and Riccardo’s along with names like Royko, Kupcinet, Ebert, and Terkel. His most enduring legacy was (derisively) coining the term “Happy Talk” for the cheery, saccharine banter between local TV news teams that replaced the sober tone of the post-Kronkite era. Ironically, it was Eyewitness News and Fahey Flynn who he skewered the hardest for it. Flynn allegedly held a grudge for years, but Happy Talk became the default tone for TV news to this day despite my father’s protests.
Among other things here, he correctly predicts the impact of short-form programming on our collective attention span, and also the new multichannel universe that would be created by the coming advent of cable television, which had not yet reached Chicago. People said he was crazy when he imagined a world with 100 channels and personalized programming. Joke’s on them!" - Jason Roth
Includes: The piece is introduced by Fahey Flynn, who speaks of people who don't have much time to "wind down" on certain TV shows, then introduces Roth as one of those "who make their living trying to save our precious entertainment hours."
The focus was a 20th anniversary party for Mr. Roth, then Chicago bureau chief for weekly Variety, which was attended by many in Chicago TV including Flynn and his co-anchor Joel Daly.
Roth speaks of being amazed of seeing the 52 American hostages' return, but didn't think "the republic would crumble" if they had waited till the next morning's newspaper, and opines that the "immediacy" of television would become a drawback.
A profile of his life and career (as he's seen in his office working on his next column) then follows, along with more of his views on TV (comparing to watching a parade through a picket fence) whose view of the world he sees as a problem.
Morris "Morry" Roth was born in South Bend, IN, served in World War II and went to Indiana University; then moved to Chicago. Scenes of his office (with pictures of his family including wife Judy Scheinfeld of Milwaukee and children Jason, 11 and Kaela, 10; plus only one award he received, in 1974, from Chicago Women in Broadcasting. (He would go on to retire in 1990.)
Scenes of him in action, pre-screening shows before they are aired and dining with various celebrities in Chicago restaurants are shown, before he is asked about his views on television's impact (which he sees as both good and bad). He also gives prognostications of when there are a hundred cable channels (some of his predictions would come to pass, others wouldn't).
Hugh closes his piece with a look at broadcast executives' views of Morry and their own place in the future.
This video closes with Joel hoping Roth has another 20 years in his profession, before going on to the next story.
This aired on local Chicago TV on Monday, February 23rd 1981 during the 4:30pm to 5:30pm timeframe.
About The Museum of Classic Chicago Television:
The MCCTv (FuzzyMemoriesTV) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit whose primary mission is the preservation and display of off-air, early home videotape recordings (70s to early 80s, mostly) recorded off of TV (in Chicago or other cities now too); things which would likely be lost if not sought out and preserved digitally. If you have any old 1970s videotapes recorded off of TV please email: tapes@fuzzy.tv We preserve the entire broadcasts in our archives - the complete programs with breaks (or however much is present on the tape), for historical preservation. For information on how to help in our mission, to donate or lend tapes to be converted to digital, please e-mail tapes@fuzzy.tv Thank you for your help!
Here's a "Chicago People" profile of veteran TV critic Morry Roth by political reporter Hugh Hill on Eyewitness News on WLS Channel 7. Our thanks to Jason Roth, who saved this tape of the news story on his dad. His remembrances:
"This was an Eyewitness News segment on my late father Morry Roth, longtime Midwest bureau chief for Variety, on the occasion of his 20th year at the paper. He’d remain there another 7 years before Variety was acquired by a publishing conglomerate that essentially shut down the bureau.
He was a sometimes divisive but beloved local figure who was able to forge strong relationships with local media players but didn’t pull punches in his reporting. He was an effusive advocate for Chicago, giving local cultural institutions like Second City, Steppenwolf, and Oprah some of their first national exposure at a time when the coastal entertainment elite scoffed at anything from flyover country. I once watched Richard Kind come bounding across O’Hare to shake his hand and thank him for helping give him his first big breaks. Another time I watched a bag boy at Treasure Island on Wells grouse to him that SNL had come in and pilfered the entire cast of Second City for its first season - except him. That bag boy was Bill Murray.
Like any good ink-stained Windy City wretch at the time, he was a regular at downtown haunts like Billy Goat and Riccardo’s along with names like Royko, Kupcinet, Ebert, and Terkel. His most enduring legacy was (derisively) coining the term “Happy Talk” for the cheery, saccharine banter between local TV news teams that replaced the sober tone of the post-Kronkite era. Ironically, it was Eyewitness News and Fahey Flynn who he skewered the hardest for it. Flynn allegedly held a grudge for years, but Happy Talk became the default tone for TV news to this day despite my father’s protests.
Among other things here, he correctly predicts the impact of short-form programming on our collective attention span, and also the new multichannel universe that would be created by the coming advent of cable television, which had not yet reached Chicago. People said he was crazy when he imagined a world with 100 channels and personalized programming. Joke’s on them!" - Jason Roth
Includes: The piece is introduced by Fahey Flynn, who speaks of people who don't have much time to "wind down" on certain TV shows, then introduces Roth as one of those "who make their living trying to save our precious entertainment hours."
The focus was a 20th anniversary party for Mr. Roth, then Chicago bureau chief for weekly Variety, which was attended by many in Chicago TV including Flynn and his co-anchor Joel Daly.
Roth speaks of being amazed of seeing the 52 American hostages' return, but didn't think "the republic would crumble" if they had waited till the next morning's newspaper, and opines that the "immediacy" of television would become a drawback.
A profile of his life and career (as he's seen in his office working on his next column) then follows, along with more of his views on TV (comparing to watching a parade through a picket fence) whose view of the world he sees as a problem.
Morris "Morry" Roth was born in South Bend, IN, served in World War II and went to Indiana University; then moved to Chicago. Scenes of his office (with pictures of his family including wife Judy Scheinfeld of Milwaukee and children Jason, 11 and Kaela, 10; plus only one award he received, in 1974, from Chicago Women in Broadcasting. (He would go on to retire in 1990.)
Scenes of him in action, pre-screening shows before they are aired and dining with various celebrities in Chicago restaurants are shown, before he is asked about his views on television's impact (which he sees as both good and bad). He also gives prognostications of when there are a hundred cable channels (some of his predictions would come to pass, others wouldn't).
Hugh closes his piece with a look at broadcast executives' views of Morry and their own place in the future.
This video closes with Joel hoping Roth has another 20 years in his profession, before going on to the next story.
This aired on local Chicago TV on Monday, February 23rd 1981 during the 4:30pm to 5:30pm timeframe.
About The Museum of Classic Chicago Television:
The MCCTv (FuzzyMemoriesTV) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit whose primary mission is the preservation and display of off-air, early home videotape recordings (70s to early 80s, mostly) recorded off of TV (in Chicago or other cities now too); things which would likely be lost if not sought out and preserved digitally. If you have any old 1970s videotapes recorded off of TV please email: tapes@fuzzy.tv We preserve the entire broadcasts in our archives - the complete programs with breaks (or however much is present on the tape), for historical preservation. For information on how to help in our mission, to donate or lend tapes to be converted to digital, please e-mail tapes@fuzzy.tv Thank you for your help!
![ON TV - Orson Welles at The Magic Castle (1978) [LOST Special] 🏰 📺](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/pO3b2PsnSgI/mqdefault.jpg "ON TV - Orson Welles at The Magic Castle (1978) [LOST Special] 🏰 📺
A spooky treat! 🎃
Sourced from a relatively-good Betamax dub, (who knows where the original recording went? Not us) heres the (seemingly) complete broadcast of a heretofore long-lost pay-tv special — Orson Welles at The Magic Castle, as shown over the ON TV subscription service (research found that it also aired on Showtime in September 1978).
A remembrance by Abb Dickson, from the book Orson Welles Remembered - I picked up the phone, I called Orson, I said, “Look, I’ve written this Magic special...” I said, “I need for you to do the introduction and the in-and-out. It will probably be one day of shooting, at the most two, and I’ve only got, I think, $25,000. Will you shoot this?” And he said, “Sure! But I get the extra film.”
We go across the street to Columbia Pay Television and in less than an hour we have sold a special called Orson Welles at the Magic Castle. Orson and I worked out all of the intros and outros. So he showed up, we did our tape, we did our intros, we shot for that one day, and the next morning we were to finish the outside shots where Orson arrived at the Castle — full of fog — and he gestures and the doors open and he walks into the Castle. Well, Orson called me at about 7 o’clock in the morning and said, “I’m not coming. I’ve shot everything they need, you can shoot the rest of it. I’ll send you my wardrobe, but you’re going to have to have a hat made because your head is smaller than mine and my hat won’t fit you.” So I’m the one outside, gesturing in the cape and wandering through the fog, and I was the one who finished the shot.
(NOTE: Several library music cues featured in the special had to be modified for posting here)
Includes:
Our host (surreptitiously played by Abb Dickson in disguise) introduces us outside the castle and describes what - and who - are allowed in it, followed by the opening title
Orson enters the building where strange things are happening, and Abb Dickson (in fez) explains about, and demonstrates, the Indian rope trick
He then turns the program over to Abb who introduces the following guests:
- Peter Pit, from Holland; does various tricks and jokes
- Ger Copper, who does various tricks
- Kuda Bux, The Man with the X-Ray Eyes from Pakistan
- A look at piano player Invisible Irma (a ghost) on display at the Irma Room
- More magic from Peter Pit (with magical floating cane) at the Palace of Mystery
- Jay Marshall, in the Conjurers Corner, does tricks involving large rings
- After his piece ends, we hard cut to Abb (in a King Tut costume) presiding over it
- Hard cut again, bringing us inside the Parlour of Prestidigitation, with Albert Goshman, who does tricks with two women, Wendy and Eileen, in attendance
- Abb does tricks with an Oriental theme
- A filmed segment with Orson doing magic
Orson then closes the program (I remain as always, obediently yours...) with credits:
Orson Welles at The Magic Castle
Starring Orson Welles
Featuring Abb Dickson
With Kuda Bux, Ger Copper, Albert Goshman, Jay Marshall, Peter Pit
Produced by Joe Butt, Brad Schreiber
Directed by Tom Trbovich
Written by Abb Dickson, Orson Welles
Lighting Consultant - Greg Brunton
Associate Director - Chris Darley
Production Stage Manager - Paul Miller
Camera - Larry Heider, Bob Keys, Wayne Orr
Video - Mark Sanford
Audio - Larry Stephens
Technical Director - Harvey Berger
Videotape Editors - Gary Princz, Max Curtis
Make-Up - Greg Nelson
Production Assistants - Wendy Charles, Kathi Heller, Wendy Macintosh
Still Photographer - Bill Sandidge
Production Coordinator - Barry Kaplan
Lighting - Imero Fiorentino Associates, Inc.
Videotape Facilities - Compact Video Systems, Inc.
Post Production - E.U.E./Screen Gems Video Services
Film Sequences - Orson Welles
Special Thanks to The Magic Castle
Executive Producer - Joe Butt
A BMR Production
Extended A Columbia Pictures Pay Television Presentation bumper (posted separately here: https://youtu.be/eQ5nbj53U6o)
Coming ON bumper
Beginning of preview for “Women in Love [1969] (recording cuts out)
Take my word for it. Im a magician myself.
This originally aired in 1978. (one confirmed airing on the Los Angeles ON TV station was in December 1978)
This footage was donated to the Museum of Classic Chicago Television as part of the Richard Gough Collection.
About The Museum of Classic Chicago Television:
The MCCTv (FuzzyMemoriesTV) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit whose primary mission is the preservation and display of off-air, early home videotape recordings (70s to early 80s, mostly) recorded off of TV (in Chicago or other cities now too); things which would likely be lost if not sought out and preserved digitally. We preserve the entire broadcasts in our archives - the complete programs with breaks (or however much is present, for historical preservation. For information on how to help in our mission, to donate or lend tapes to be converted to digital, please e-mail tapes@fuzzy.tv Thank you for your help!")
