ILX LA: KCET launches Huell Howser's Interactive LA!!!

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If you guys don't know, my current user name is a tribute to my favorite tv host (besides Miguel from BUSCANDO AMOR. the local Mexican Blind Date ripoff.), Huell Howser. he is this jolly man with a beergut and a feminine southern accent. he takes you around to cool places in California. sometimes he'll take you to some long lost roadside attraction. other times he just hang out in a donut shop in Arleta and bother the patrons and employees all day with his naive interviewing style and "duh" kind of wide-eyed-im-a-little-boy-wow-this-is-so-excicing-being-in-a-donut-shop-in-Arleta!!
style of hosting. the dood is ALWAYS REALLY excited to look at the dumbest shit.

i never know which show im watching because motherfuker has SEVEN SHOWS that he hosts/produces which must make him some sort of insane autistic genius or something!!!!!! He has this one show called "ROAD TRIP WITH HUELL HOWSER" where he just gets in his car with one camera man and just drive with no paticular destination in mind.

KCET (Los Angeles public television) just launched a site thats basically a map of la with little red dots and if you click on a red dot an old video of Huell showing you something cool in LA pops up!

Join Huell Howser on a video tour of LA's history and neighborhoods. Click on your favorite location below and discover how menudo is made, cross the "Bridge to Nowhere" or meet Thai Elvis.
http://www.kcet.com/programsa-z/huells/

http://www.dailyrepublican.com/huell_howser.gif http://cameldairy.com/index.7.jpg http://www.cherrycapri.com/photos_santacon02/huell.jpg http://www.ftmac.org/images/Huell_Howser/DSCF0092.jpg http://angeles.sierraclub.org/news/images/Howser.gif

― chaki (chaki), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 08:32 (twenty years ago)

See now this is why I hate Aus cable - we got cable but we dont got CABLE - we dont have these public access crazyshows dammit. Pity.

― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 09:27 (twenty years ago)

he sounds like the teacher on south park!

― huell howser (chaki), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 09:39 (twenty years ago)

chaki, your current username is chaki!

― stockholm cindy (from norway) (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 09:39 (twenty years ago)

(xpost)

― stockholm cindy (from norway) (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 09:40 (twenty years ago)

i only changed it for that post

― huell howser (chaki), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 09:40 (twenty years ago)

bump for la time

― huell howser (chaki), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 16:34 (twenty years ago)

I wish Huell Howser was my uncle.

― Dr. Glen Y. Abreu (dr g), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 16:35 (twenty years ago)

I love him - mainly because of his 'oh my god, I'm in a DONUT SHOP' attitude.

― luna (luna.c), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 16:38 (twenty years ago)

One of my favorite episodes is when Huell goes to a Highland Park (?) market that has tons of hard to find sodas. The shoppers are as wired as he is.

― Dr. Glen Y. Abreu (dr g), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 16:44 (twenty years ago)

For the longest time I kept confusing Huell Howser with Hugh Hewitt. This was a mistake on my part.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 16:47 (twenty years ago)

totally great, anyone who's heard him can do an HH impression and that means he's awesome. I like how he listens way too good, letting people blather on for like 10 minutes about their little bike riding club or whatever. He wades into events as if he has no idea why he's there really but dammit he's gonna be enthusiastic about it, sounds like I'm slagging him but it's a really refreshing show in a lot of ways.

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 16:50 (twenty years ago)

There was one he did from some town - maybe Bakersfield? in which he started out in an ice cream shop and ended up in a pseudo biker bar, all the while with the same 'you're really interesting!' look on his face.

― luna (luna.c), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 16:52 (twenty years ago)

I think I would love him more if it turned out that he was the world's biggest jerk off-camera.

― Dr. Glen Y. Abreu (dr g), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 17:00 (twenty years ago)

I love Huell Howser! Just the other night I watched an old greatest hits sort of clip show that he had on. He was showing stuff from there early '80s (Huell Howser's Video Diary) and he interviewed the inventor of the ant farm, went to the bridge to nowhere, reunited an elderly elephant trainer with the elephant he hadn't seen for 20 years, and other such adventures. It was great! In some of the clips he was wearing a suit which looked strange because you couldn't see his biceps.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 17:02 (twenty years ago)

If Wally George were still alive, Huell Howser would be the anti-Wally George.

― donut ferry (donut), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 17:38 (twenty years ago)

re: dr. a-bro-you's post

HUELL HOWSER *IS* CHRISTOPHER NANCE

Man that would be awesome if true. They could make a bad ass buddy comedy based on malevolence and foppery.

― Stuh-du-du-du-du-du-du-denka (jingleberries), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 18:34 (twenty years ago)

and Pink's.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 18:35 (twenty years ago)

I want to see the episode where Huell Howser goes to Phillipe's.

― Dr. Glen Y. Abreu (dr g), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 18:40 (twenty years ago)

Off camera he is the biggest queen around. I love how he constantly repeats what people tell him over and over.

Park Ranger - "This is the world's oldest living thing."
Huell - "So what you are saying is that this is the oldest living thing in the ENTIRE world?" (repeated three times at least)

Best episode is when he goes to the nothern most part of California and witnesses the miracle that is the giant horseradish.

― svend (svend), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 18:44 (twenty years ago)

Huell Howser could go to the Museam Of Death in San Diego and even convince my grandparents that it could be a charming adventure. Howser has radiance that's very alien to humans.

― donut ferry (donut), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 18:47 (twenty years ago)

Best episode is when he goes to the nothern most part of California and witnesses the miracle that is the giant horseradish.

best episode of WHAT though? he has 7 shows! and now 8 with the "Best Of Videologue" thing

― huell howser (chaki), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 19:04 (twenty years ago)

We only get California Gold in the Bay Area I think, at least I haven't heard of the other ones.

I did see some series of a show that visited every mission in California over liek 10 episodes. It was great, just like if Jethro Bodine had grown up, gotten old and was now working for PBS in real life.

― svend (svend), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 19:08 (twenty years ago)

There's a Simpsons where they parody him with a guy named Howell Hueser. He comes to Springfield and gives the town his lowest rating ever - a 6 out of 10.

― already disheveled hair projection (wetmink), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 19:12 (twenty years ago)

Off camera he is the biggest queen around.

"off camera"

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 19:12 (twenty years ago)

One of my favorites was a show where he didn't have anything planned so he just sort of went to Echo Park and started to wander around the park and talk to random strangers.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 19:14 (twenty years ago)

two months pass...

I think I would love him more if it turned out that he was the world's biggest jerk off-camera.

This is funny you said this, Deano. I just read an old Los Angeles Magazine article about him. Alot of his past coworkers say that he's the most difficult person to ever work with. Thats why he does alot of his shows on his own. The article paints him as this extremely tortured man with no friends and no love life. He spends alot of time getting drunk at the Tiki Ti apparently.

― howell huser (chaki), Thursday, 13 October 2005 00:26 (twenty years ago)

Aww, my illusions are shattered. I'd still buy Huell a Ray's Mistake at the Tiki Ti any day.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Thursday, 13 October 2005 00:32 (twenty years ago)

like dean, it made me love him more.

― howell huser (chaki), Thursday, 13 October 2005 00:34 (twenty years ago)

is Christopher Nance a prick too? Never got around to asking. I mean, he's a complete cipher anyway on camera, I had never thought about it before.

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Thursday, 13 October 2005 00:36 (twenty years ago)

i think huell is less prick, more misunderstood.

― howell huser (chaki), Thursday, 13 October 2005 00:36 (twenty years ago)

He's like a tortured genius? A Bukowski kinda character?

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Thursday, 13 October 2005 00:40 (twenty years ago)

saw Huell's visit to Half Moon Bay last weekend too, great as ever. During his tour of the local feed store, he found out about a chicken and a duck who lived in the back who were best friends and his head just about exploded.

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Thursday, 13 October 2005 00:43 (twenty years ago)

I was kind of hoping that he was a really mean and horrible person and that his on camera antics were just acting. But yeah, I can definitely see how he could be neurotic and miserable. It adds a sad quality to his show to think about that. Still, I will always remember him as the man who was just really happy to be wherever he was.

― I was CRYING when Magin Johnson did donuts in a magical AIDS thrfit store (dr g), Thursday, 13 October 2005 00:47 (twenty years ago)

Re: Nance - Storm watch: fired by NBC4 after a history of inappropriate relationships, violent outbursts, and ethical lapses, terminally sunny forecaster Christopher Nance has turned out to be the troubled nino of L.A. weather

― I was CRYING when Magin Johnson did donuts in a magical AIDS thrfit store (dr g), Thursday, 13 October 2005 00:48 (twenty years ago)

The thing that surprises me the most about that article is that he's straight.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 13 October 2005 00:52 (twenty years ago)

The article DOES however remind me of one of the great names of LA newscasters, Kent Shocknek -- but that still doesn't beat out Dallas Raines, THE KING.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 13 October 2005 00:55 (twenty years ago)

(xp) Seriously.

― I was CRYING when Huell Howser's head exploded in a local feed store (dr g), Thursday, 13 October 2005 00:58 (twenty years ago)

I like Johnny Mountain too.

I'm sure Kent Shocknek is the world's biggest prick. He HAS to be.

― I was CRYING when Huell Howser's head exploded in a local feed store (dr g), Thursday, 13 October 2005 00:58 (twenty years ago)

Last year, in a blunder more unseemly than threatening, Nance missed his cue during a cut-in from The Today Show. When Al Roker gave the signal ("Now here's a look at what's going on in your neck of the woods"), NB[C.sub.4] was supposed to jump to a tape of the local forecast. Instead, the screen went dark for about 20 seconds. Nance's voice, recorded earlier, was unmistakable. "All right," he could be heard saying, apparently in reference to some footage of small children, "let's do this one for the pedophiles."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 13 October 2005 01:00 (twenty years ago)

Kent Shocknek looks mongoloid.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Thursday, 13 October 2005 01:05 (twenty years ago)

No love for LA staple DR GEORGE??

― howell huser (chaki), Thursday, 13 October 2005 01:07 (twenty years ago)

Who the fuck is that whiter than white LA anchorguy again, the one who looks like a middle aged jock that was carved out of a block of pink meat?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 13 October 2005 01:08 (twenty years ago)

Kent Shocknek.

― I was CRYING when Huell Howser's head exploded in a local feed store (dr g), Thursday, 13 October 2005 01:10 (twenty years ago)

http://www.haleisner.com/images/from_field/shocknek_kent.jpg ?

― I was CRYING when Huell Howser's head exploded in a local feed store (dr g), Thursday, 13 October 2005 01:11 (twenty years ago)

No, he's got blonde hair -- isn't it Rick something?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 13 October 2005 01:14 (twenty years ago)

He's like some jock/Aryan uberman dude.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 13 October 2005 01:16 (twenty years ago)

Is he the one that ducked?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 13 October 2005 01:16 (twenty years ago)

Anyway, let's do this thread for the pedophiles.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 13 October 2005 01:16 (twenty years ago)

Several (of his books) have autobiographical themes, most notably The Weatherman Is Coming to My School Today. It features a little girl named Shannon who has written to a TV weatherman, inviting him to visit. When she hears on the morning news that he has accepted, her eyes grow big and she lets out a shout. But nobody takes her seriously "Oh, I think the Weatherman is too busy to visit your school, Sweetheart," her mother says.

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Thursday, 13 October 2005 01:20 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 116 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Holy shit!

― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 7 January 2013 20:16 (thirteen years ago)

confirmed:

RT @KPCC: Huell Howser's assistant Ryan Morris has confirmed to John Rabe that Huell Howser died last night at home.

― gimme some reggae! (get bent), Monday, 7 January 2013 20:21 (thirteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXsA7E21ErQ

― pun lovin criminal (polyphonic), Monday, 7 January 2013 20:42 (thirteen years ago)

this is literally the worst news i've heard in ages

― christmas candy bar (al leong), Monday, 7 January 2013 20:47 (thirteen years ago)

RIP

― the late great, Monday, 7 January 2013 21:06 (thirteen years ago)

bummer!

― ω (carne asada), Monday, 7 January 2013 21:20 (thirteen years ago)

hope heaven is amazing

― panettone for the painfully alone (mayor jingleberries), Monday, 7 January 2013 21:30 (thirteen years ago)

rip

― turds (Hungry4Ass), Monday, 7 January 2013 21:36 (thirteen years ago)

Nice little remembrance:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-soboroff/huell-howser-dead_b_2427047.html

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 7 January 2013 21:41 (thirteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j2kKUgs4Zc

― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 7 January 2013 21:48 (thirteen years ago)

My favorite episode of California's Gold (or maybe of any TV show ever) is the Clifton's Cafeteria one. It's sadly not on YouTube (and the podcast seems to have been removed from iTunes), but if you ever get a chance.... It's everything that made this guy a total unique and a 100% posi-vibes wonder. RIP.

― Walter Galt, Monday, 7 January 2013 21:50 (thirteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAygY6ws3w4

― pun lovin criminal (polyphonic), Monday, 7 January 2013 21:50 (thirteen years ago)

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2013/01/huell_howser_dead.php

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 7 January 2013 23:30 (thirteen years ago)

(That's a more up to date remembrance with some good anecdotes.)

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 7 January 2013 23:31 (thirteen years ago)

In 2008, Anaheim activist Cynthia Ward contacted me to ask if perhaps I wanted to sit down with Huell for an interview previewing his show on Anaheim? Hell ya--but why us? Turns out Huell was a fan of this infernal rag and wanted to give us the exclusive over the Orange County Register, a paper he didn't like AT ALL for reasons he wouldn't disclose.

What a hero!

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 7 January 2013 23:31 (thirteen years ago)

Seriously, fuck the Register.

― pun lovin criminal (polyphonic), Monday, 7 January 2013 23:34 (thirteen years ago)

RIP

― Spencer Chow, Tuesday, 8 January 2013 01:10 (thirteen years ago)

f this

― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Tuesday, 8 January 2013 06:20 (thirteen years ago)

Huell Howser on The Clash:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8BwJc1t9a0

― pun lovin criminal (polyphonic), Wednesday, 9 January 2013 20:29 (thirteen years ago)

Memorial next Tuesday at Griffith Park Observatory

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 9 January 2013 22:27 (thirteen years ago)

UPDATE: LaBonge's office sent out additional details about the gathering.
WHEN:
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
3:30 P.M. Gather at the steps of Griffith Observatory
4:00 P.M. Remarks
5:07 P.M. Sunset Salute
WHERE:
Steps of the Griffith Observatory
2800 East Observatory Road, Los Angeles, CA 90027

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 9 January 2013 23:21 (thirteen years ago)

In response to concerns Howser did not want such an event to take place, Peschiutta reports LaBonge is aware of Howser's wishes and has a very basic vision for the gathering: "Tom concedes Huell didn't want a memorial. I think that's why they're keeping it simple, remarks and watching the sunset," she tweets.

This all from

http://laist.com/2013/01/09/huell_howser_memorial_councilman_or.php

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 9 January 2013 23:23 (thirteen years ago)

Apparently the cause was prostate cancer

― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 16 January 2013 23:25 (thirteen years ago)

yesterday at the getty center's restaurant for my gf's uncle's birthday, huell howser was sitting two tables away drinking COSMOPOLITANS. after he was finished he walked over to our table and stopped and talked to us. he asked what was going on and when told it was the uncle's b-day he said, "wah, ah usually spend mah birthdays curled up in bed in the fetal position! ha ha ha!" and made small talk for another couple of minutes before wandering off with his companions for a tour of the center garden.

― omar little

should have mentioned, though it really goes without saying, that he acted like everyone at our table were his old friends.

― christmas candy bar (al leong), Wednesday, 16 January 2013 23:29 (thirteen years ago)

Gah, why did I not realize or did I forget you were omar l.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 16 January 2013 23:36 (thirteen years ago)

http://media.animevice.com/uploads/0/151/47554-many_of_many_faces_vol_1_large.jpg

― christmas candy bar (al leong), Wednesday, 16 January 2013 23:40 (thirteen years ago)

four years pass...

been watching lots of old eps of Visiting on KCET lately. saw a great one where Huell goes a pen collectors club and learns all kinds of neat facts about historic pens (and inkwells) and the names of their various component parts

https://j.gifs.com/oY10Nz.gif

― del griffith, Wednesday, 24 May 2017 02:51 (eight years ago)

five months pass...

https://j.gifs.com/4R8EOV.gif

― del griffith, Wednesday, 1 November 2017 00:43 (eight years ago)

three weeks pass...

https://j.gifs.com/mQYZOR.gif

― del griffith, Tuesday, 28 November 2017 01:33 (eight years ago)

I love the idea of California’s Gold more than I like watching it. The series introduced me to phillipe’s in LA tho so his work is done

― YouTube_-_funy_cats.flv (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Tuesday, 28 November 2017 01:40 (eight years ago)

I know what you mean, yet I still watch em, and the whole time I'm thinking "I love that I'm watching this."

― del griffith, Tuesday, 28 November 2017 02:12 (eight years ago)

huell is *extremely* my shit

― reggae mike love (polyphonic), Tuesday, 28 November 2017 02:16 (eight years ago)

Benign rube is my clown goal

― YouTube_-_funy_cats.flv (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Tuesday, 28 November 2017 02:21 (eight years ago)

I know what you mean, yet I still watch em, and the whole time I'm thinking "I love that I'm watching this."

― del griffith, Monday, November 27, 2017 6:12 PM (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

huell is *extremely* my shit

― reggae mike love (polyphonic), Monday, November 27, 2017 6:16 PM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^^

thx for the gifs, del

― brimstead, Tuesday, 28 November 2017 02:22 (eight years ago)

two weeks pass...

^^^^

my pleasure, sir

https://j.gifs.com/Q0OrZq.gif

― del griffith, Thursday, 14 December 2017 15:31 (eight years ago)

where is trader dicks located

― infinity (∞), Thursday, 14 December 2017 17:15 (eight years ago)

trader groins

just kidding, polynesia

― del griffith, Thursday, 14 December 2017 21:25 (eight years ago)

i am a pretty casual huell howser fan but this is one of my favorites. there's also another where he goes to coachella that's good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImpGsMenmSs

― global tetrahedron, Thursday, 14 December 2017 21:29 (eight years ago)

oh yeah that's a great one! "tell him we're on right now!" "we're on right now."

the Bagdad Cafe's just a few miles from Huell's old volcano house that anyone with $650,000 would be a stupid idiot to not buy.

― del griffith, Friday, 15 December 2017 00:24 (eight years ago)

This is great: https://www.diningindiaspora.com/stories/2017/12/21/when-the-king-of-california-public-television-had-a-very-armenian-american-christmas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v96qmvUrwQ

― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 23 December 2017 23:22 (eight years ago)

two months pass...

https://j.gifs.com/vo5XRL.gif

― del griffith, Sunday, 18 March 2018 01:33 (seven years ago)

two weeks pass...

the essence of late 80s/early 90s cool

https://j.gifs.com/86xADW.gif

― del griffith, Wednesday, 4 April 2018 02:25 (seven years ago)

two months pass...

https://j.gifs.com/jqwnQy.gif

― del griffith, Monday, 11 June 2018 00:16 (seven years ago)

two months pass...

Hey, pretty cool -- Kickstarter dedicated to digitizing and getting episodes on streaming services has succeeded. A few days to go so I chipped in a little so I can get updates as that happens.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kcet/bring-back-huells-greatest-hits

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 28 August 2018 23:29 (seven years ago)

nice!

also this Thursday at 8:30 PDT, The Bennett Show on KXLU will have Huell's cameraman on as a guest to talk about Huell and presumably his book:

https://www.amazon.com/Louie-Take-Look-This-Howser/dp/194555102X

you can probably listen live via their site: http://kxlu.com

― omar little, Tuesday, 28 August 2018 23:37 (seven years ago)

two months pass...

https://j.gifs.com/2vj7EM.gif

― del griffith, Thursday, 8 November 2018 04:56 (seven years ago)

three weeks pass...

https://j.gifs.com/pQEvWN.gif