Jerry Dunphy

Jerry Dunphy was an American television news anchor in the Los AngelesSouthern California media market He was best known for his intro From the desert to the sea to all of Southern California a good evening After serving as a pilot in World War II Dunphy began his broadcast television career in 1953 He was the news directoranchor at thenCBS ownedandoperated OO WXIX now CW affiliated WVTV in Milwaukee Dunphy also was a sports reporter at another CBS OO WBBMTV in Chicago Dunphy also served as a color commentator for Green Bay Packers telecasts on CBS in 1956 In 1960 Dunphy took over the anchor chair at the Los Angeles CBS OO station KNXT now KCBSTV where he anchored Los Angeles most popular newscast later titled The Big News a program that often attracted a quarter of Los Angeles television owners ratings unheard of in the market He was still popular when fired in 1975 yet KNXT sought to adopt a fasterpaced Eyewitness News type format It was then that Dunphy joined KABCTV bringing it to the top of the ratings making it Southern Californias news leader Since Dunphys unceremonious firing Channel 2 never recovered in the ratings until the mid2000s Dunphy left KABCTV in 1989 and joined the upstart KCALTV that July when it was still KHJTV as one of the pioneering anchors of the threehour primetime news format Prime 9 News He returned to KCBSTV in 1995 and remained until 1997 as an anchorman and rejoined KCALTV in 1997 where he remained until his death Dunphy was one of the first newscasters to interview President Richard Nixon after his resignation in 1974 He would later sit down with Ronald Reagan Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford Dunphy also performed regular cameos in LAbased films including Warning Shot Night of the Lepus Oh God Short Cuts The Jerky Boys and Independence Day as well as in episode 6 of Batman Film WayWay Out and is considered to be the inspiration for two fictional television characters Ted Baxter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Kent Brockman on The Simpsons the director of Krusty Gets Busted Brad Bird designed the character and modeled him after anchorman Ted Koppel Dunphy was also a songwriter One of his songs was called appropriately From the Desert to the Sea and was recorded by country music star TG Sheppard On May 9 1984 Dunphy received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in the television industry located at 6669 Hollywood Boulevard He succumbed to a heart attack on May 20 2002