Week of May 27: Television News-Talk's Best Goodbyes

By Sylvia Gurinsky

"Subtle" will not be one of the words used to describe much of Oprah Winfrey's farewell to her talk show this week.

Yet, subtle goodbyes have historically been the best ones. Here are some examples of classy ones (I suspect Jim Lehrer, stepping down from PBS' "NewsHour" in coming days, will join them:

*Chet Huntley, NBC, July 31, 1970: Along with David Brinkley, Chet Huntley anchored the very successful "Huntley-Brinkley Report" from 1956 until 1970, along with various political conventions and countless special reports. Huntley's goodbye and Brinkley's response are winners:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYf3eyRjfYA


*Walter Cronkite, CBS, March 6, 1981: Cronkite, the anchor of the "CBS Evening News" for 19 years, said a gracious goodbye, with one of my favorite quotes: "Old anchormen don't fade away, you see, they just keep coming back for more:"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9QEUfkRkZ0


*Johnny Carson, NBC, May 22, 1992: Carson (who, incidentally, did a hilarious send-off of a Cronkite farewell the night before Cronkite said goodbye) had an exit that was much covered in the press. At one point, he joked that he'd been in the news so much that his employees had started referring to him as "warm and approachable," rather than "cool and aloof."

Carson had two emotional goodbyes. The first one actually came on his second-to-last show, when comedian Robin Williams and actress/singer Bette Midler were guests. Midler and Carson sang one of Carson's favorites, "Here's That Rainy Day":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xty-L4Pp2CA&feature=fvst

The following night, Carson kept to the basics, showing clips from years past and saluting Ed McMahon, Doc Severinsen and the band - as well as the audience:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9LuLqsWgiQ

"If I could, magically.....make it run backwards, I'd like to do it all over again," are the comments Carson made at the beginning of that last show. We agree, Johnny, we agree.

*Charles Kuralt, CBS, April 3, 1994: Kuralt had hosted "CBS News Sunday Morning" since its 1978 creation. In his introduction to his last book, "Charles Kuralt's America," he would compare his parting from CBS to a divorce ("I realized I didn't love her anymore," he wrote.). But that Sunday, the tone ranged from a cheerful handoff to new host Charles Osgood (still going strong today) to the humor of those noisy geese ("My heart knows where the wild goose goes.") to the bittersweet poem of Clarence Day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQM3Yr18TjU

Bet Oprah didn't get a "tiddly-widdly-toodle-oo."

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Honor to all who have served on this Memorial Day weekend.

See you next week.