AM America was a morning news program produced by ABC in an attempt to compete with the highly rated Today on NBC . Premiering on January 6, 1975, the show never found an audience against Today or the CBS combo of the CBS Morning News and Captain Kangaroo . Lasting just under ten months, its final installment aired on October 31. It was replaced the following Monday, November 3, by Good Morning America .
14-647: The program's concept was based on Ralph Story 's AM , the local morning show on the network 's owned-and-operated Los Angeles station KABC-TV . Like Today , AM America employed two hosts and a news anchor. Originally selected in August 1974 as cohosts were Bill Beutel who was co-anchor of Eyewitness News on the network's New York City flagship station WABC-TV , Stephanie Edwards from Ralph Story's AM and Bob Kennedy who hosted morning talk show Kennedy and Company on Chicago 's WLS-TV . Kennedy died of bone cancer on November 5, 1974, just two months prior to
28-524: A 1968 episode of The Lucy Show , Story played himself as the host of Ralph Story's Los Angeles . Story joined KABC-TV in February 1971, co-hosting Ralph Story's A.M. , a morning news show produced by Howard P. Campbell When the program evolved into GMA and moved to New York City, Story stayed in Los Angeles, where he continued working as a writer, producer, and reporter for several TV stations. After
42-466: A brief stint on KNBC , he returned to KNXT (which later became KCBS-TV) in 1978 as an evening anchor for Channel 2 News alongside Marcia Brandwynne and later Sandy Hill . In 1985, Story retired and moved to Santa Barbara County 's wine region, where he and his second wife, Diana, operated an art gallery in Los Olivos . In 1989, Ralph appeared in the television film, Ernest Goes to Splash Mountain which
56-400: A local news magazine program about the people and places of Los Angeles called Ralph Story's Los Angeles . It aired for six years. Ralph Story's Los Angeles aired from 1964 to 1970 on KNXT. Created by producer/director Dan Gingold, it featured the work of two writers, Jere Witter and Nate Kaplan. Wittily hosted by Story, the show examined interesting features, events and sites documenting
70-400: The 9 a.m. hour, after the national program ended; they generally had one or two hosts, and most had a live studio audience, especially during the 1980s). Ralph Story Ralph Story (born Ralph Bernard Snyder ; August 19, 1920 – September 26, 2006) was an American television and radio personality. He was best known as the host of The $ 64,000 Challenge from 1956 to 1958, and as
84-529: The Pythons attempting to tear apart the set and abscond with everything that wasn't nailed down, including Edwards. Edwards quit the show by the end of May, and Beutel followed her out a few months later. On November 3, the Monday following its final broadcast, it was replaced with a more well-known, more successful effort, Good Morning America . The logo for AM America had the letters A and M colored in blue while
98-642: The history and culture of Los Angeles. Generations of Angelenos developed a passion for their city as a result of this documentary-style show. Select episodes of Ralph Story's Los Angeles are housed at the UCLA Film & Television Archive and are available for public viewing by advance appointment via the Archive Research and Study Center located in Powell Library, room 46 on the UCLA campus. In "Lucy Meets Ken Berry,"
112-561: The rest of the word "America" was colored in red. The "AM" overlapped with "America". A star was placed inside the "A". The series' theme music was "Spirit Of '76 (AM America)," an instrumental composed by William Goldstein which was released as a single for Motown in November 1975. The AM (city name) name was franchised to ABC stations across the United States, for locally produced morning talk programs (which generally aired during
126-457: The series' debut, and was eventually replaced by ABC's Washington correspondent Peter Jennings who provided the news reports. One notable episode of AM America aired on April 25, 1975, when members of the British comedy troupe Monty Python , with the exception of John Cleese who had temporarily left the group, made one of their earliest appearances on American television. The program ended with
140-513: The suggestion of the station's managers, he changed his name to Ralph Story. Story's casual style and witty observations about life in Los Angeles made him a popular host and won him national recognition. Story later moved into network television , where, in 1956, he began hosting the hugely popular game show , The $ 64,000 Challenge . The CBS show was canceled in 1958 while several networks were embroiled in allegations that popular contestants were supplied with answers in advance. Story, who
154-535: The writer and host of Ralph Story's Los Angeles from 1964 to 1970. Story was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan . He started his broadcasting career in the late 1940s, after serving as a United States Army Air Forces flight instructor and P-51 fighter pilot during World War II . Story had his big break in broadcasting in 1948, when he was hired to host and direct an early morning show on KNX radio in Los Angeles . At
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#1732870004045168-429: Was not implicated in the scandal, returned to local broadcasting in 1960. He returned to KNX, this time anchoring a news program and later joined The Big News , one of the nation's first hour-long local TV newscasts, on KNXT -TV (sister station to KNX radio, owned and operated by CBS). His regular feature, Human Predicament , about people caught in unusual events and situations, became a popular segment. It developed into
182-665: Was shot in Disneyland . He volunteered for numerous civic groups, serving as a fundraiser for public television stations, narrator for the Hollywood Bowl and judge of the Rose Parade . In 1995, he wrote and hosted a program about Los Angeles landmarks called Things That Aren't Here Anymore for KCET and followed it up with a sequel. Story died on September 26, 2006, in Santa Ynez, California from complications due to emphysema , and
196-551: Was survived by his wife and one son from his first marriage. In 1984, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences honored him with its highest honor, the Governor's Award. After Story's death, Hollywood columnist Rona Barrett said that "no one told a story on television better than Ralph." Former colleague Warren Olney described Ralph Story as "a master of the craft." KCBS-TV Too Many Requests If you report this error to
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