Jerry Dunphy

Birth : 1921-06-09, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

Death : 2002-05-20

History

Jerry Dunphy was an American television news anchor in the Los Angeles/Southern 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 director/anchor at then-CBS owned-and-operated (O&O) WXIX (now CW affiliated WVTV) in Milwaukee. Dunphy also was a sports reporter at another CBS O&O, WBBM-TV, 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 O&O station KNXT (now KCBS-TV), 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 faster-paced, "Eyewitness News" type format. It was then that Dunphy joined KABC-TV, bringing it to the top of the ratings, making it Southern California's news leader. Since Dunphy's unceremonious firing, Channel 2 never recovered in the ratings, until the mid-2000s. Dunphy left KABC-TV in 1989 and joined the upstart KCAL-TV that July (when it was still KHJ-TV) as one of the pioneering anchors of the three-hour primetime news format, "Prime 9 News". He returned to KCBS-TV in 1995 and remained until 1997 as an anchorman, and rejoined KCAL-TV 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 L.A.-based 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 Way,,,Way 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 T.G. 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.

Movies

Pauly Shore Is Dead
Pauly Shore Is Dead
Jerry Dunphy
Hollywood comedian/actor Pauly Shore loses everything: his house, nobody in Hollywood wants to represent him, he moves back home with his mom and is now parking cars at the Comedy Store. Then one night when he's up in his mom's loft, a dead famous comedian appears who tells Pauly to kill himself cause he'll go down as a comedic genius who died before his time. Pauly then fakes his own death, and the media goes crazy.
Independence Day: The ID4 Invasion
Independence Day: The ID4 Invasion
World News Network's Pentagon correspondent Jerry Dunphy
A "mockumentary" of the alien invasion during Independence Day. Barry Nolan hosts the programme, the first 9 minutes of which are a spoof news report of the events of the film. The middle bit is a discussion of the film by cast and crew, and at the end various scientists and politicians discuss what would happen if real aliens arrive on Earth.
Independence Day
Independence Day
Self
On July 2, a giant alien mothership enters orbit around Earth and deploys several dozen saucer-shaped 'destroyer' spacecraft that quickly lay waste to major cities around the planet. On July 3, the United States conducts a coordinated counterattack that fails. On July 4, a plan is devised to gain access to the interior of the alien mothership in space, in order to plant a nuclear missile.
Beverly Hills Cop III
Beverly Hills Cop III
Newscaster
Back in sunny southern California and on the trail of two murderers, Axel Foley again teams up with LA cop Billy Rosewood. Soon, they discover that an amusement park is being used as a front for a massive counterfeiting ring – and it's run by the same gang that shot Billy's boss.
Jimmy Hollywood
Jimmy Hollywood
Anchorperson
Jimmy Alto is an actor wannabe who stumbles into the role of a lifetime. He becomes a vigilante crime-fighter, aided by his sidekick William, who has suffered a head wound and has problems with short-term memory. Jimmy's vigilante alter ego soon becomes a media wonder--but Jimmy remains a total unknown and his long-suffering girl friend Lorraine is getting fed up with the whole situation.
Short Cuts
Short Cuts
Himself
Many loosely connected characters cross paths in this film, based on the stories of Raymond Carver. Waitress Doreen Piggot accidentally runs into a boy with her car. Soon after walking away, the child lapses into a coma. While at the hospital, the boy's grandfather tells his son, Howard, about his past affairs. Meanwhile, a baker starts harassing the family when they fail to pick up the boy's birthday cake.
The Great Quake Hazard Hunt
The Great Quake Hazard Hunt
Himself
Educational video with Chip and Dale showing children how earthquakes happen and how to prepare for them at home and at school.
Impulse
Impulse
TV Anchorman
Regularly working alone undercover with a vice squad boss she dislikes as much as he dislikes her, Lottie Mason is living pretty much on the edge. An assignment helping out the Assistant D.A. may be the start of a serious relationship but then, tired and disillusioned after a job one night, she finds herself accepting a proposition in a bar that leads rapidly into a web of murder and deceit.
Hard to Kill
Hard to Kill
Newscaster
Mason Storm, a 'go it alone' cop, is gunned down at home. The intruders kill his wife, and think they've killed both Mason and his son too. Mason is secretly taken to a hospital where he spends several years in a coma. His son meanwhile is growing up thinking his father is dead. When Mason wakes up, everyone is in danger - himself, his son, his best friend, his nurse - but most of all those who arranged for his death
Oh, God!
Oh, God!
Self
When God appears to an assistant grocery manager as a good natured old man, the Almighty selects him as his messenger for the modern world.
Night of the Lepus
Night of the Lepus
Television Newscaster
Giant mutant rabbits terrorize the southwest!!
The Love Machine
The Love Machine
Newscaster
An ambitious TV newscaster has an affair with the wife of a network executive to get a promotion.
Kitten with a Whip
Kitten with a Whip
Newscaster
Straitlaced senatorial hopeful David Stratton has no idea what he's in for when he arrives home from a trip to find sexy teen Jody curled up asleep in his daughter's bed. Soon, delinquent Jody is holding David -- and his plush suburban home -- hostage while she hides out from the cops and throws wild parties with her beatnik pals. David, terrified of scandal, agrees to drive Jody and her friends to Mexico, a decision he regrets when the ride gets out of control.