The year Larry King dated Angie Dickinson

Phil Mushnick

At a time when TV news folks are being laid off by the dozens, it becomes extra painful to see how local newscasts waste money.

Recently, the 11 p.m. edition of Ch. 7’s “Eyewitness News” reported Larry King’s planned retirement from CNN. Channel 7 dispatched a reporter and a crew to provide that story, live, from in front of CNN’s Manhattan headquarters.

This live, on-the-scene report came after 11 p.m. on a Tuesday. There didn’t appear to be much action within CNN’s HQ; it was pretty dark outside the building, as well. It stood to reason that there wouldn’t even be much foot traffic to be seen in the report, and there wasn’t.

What was Larry’s secret? He once dated Angie Dickinson.

So why not just report that story, with video, from the studio? Why did Ch. 7 send a reporter and crew to conduct a live stand-up from in front of CNN at 11:12 at night?

Why? Because that’s the way it has always been done; that’s why. No good reason, beyond habit. In TV, no bad idea is unworthy of duplication.

We’ve seen this hundreds of times. A crime is committed, and many, many hours — a day later, even — there’s a live report from the scene.

The scene? There is no scene. The scene is gone. The interview with the cops and/or the neighbors is on tape, from many hours earlier. There is no good reason for the reporter to be standing, live, reporting from the scene long after the scene had ceased to be one.

Why not spend the station’s shrinking resources pursuing something more worthwhile — some news, perhaps?

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Speaking of Larry King and his planned retirement this fall, it seems as if everyone who has dealt with him has a favorite King story. Here’s one:

Years ago, after a 30-ish TV critic for a New York newspaper took a few swings at King in print, he wrote the columnist a nasty letter, attacking the writer’s newspaper.

The critic replied that he doesn’t hold King responsible for everything presented on the networks he works for, thus both should answer only for their own work.

Years later, King surprised that critic with a phone call. He complimented him for having had the nerve to stand up to him, years before, and, as a reward, he was going to give him a big news scoop. Would he like that?

“Sure; fire away,” said the TV columnist.

And here it was: He, Larry King, is dating Angie Dickinson.

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There’s a Website, TVTango.com that shows what was scheduled on any date, birthdays, marriages, etc., since 1950.

For example, 35 years ago, today, CBS’s “Match Game ‘75,” hosted by Bert Convy, included these Always-Available Game Show Hall of Fame Celebrity Panelists: Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, Richard Dawson and Joyce Bulifant. (Bulifant’s previous claim to TV fame was the role of Marie, wife of Murray Slaughter, played by Gavin MacLeod, on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”)

Five years later, on this date, NBC from 10-11:30 a.m., aired “The David Letterman Show.” Five years after that — 25 years ago, today — from 12:35 a.m. to 1:35, NBC aired “Late Night With David Letterman.”

And what was lost to New Yorkers on July 13, 1977, the night of the disastrous New York City blackout?

On CBS, the rest of the country could have watched the “Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. Show” — the singing spouses from The Fifth Dimension — followed, on NBC, by Raymond Burr in “Kingston: Confidential,” a new series that went lights-out shortly after the lights came back on.

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The Way the Wind Blows: Now that NBC/Universal owns the Weather Channel, it sure seems as if NBC News’ telecasts are eager to include weather stories in order to force-feature TWC reporters and visual and spoken references.