Welcome to my blog on beliefnet.com. I am pleased and proud to be able to share my wide-ranging thoughts on the most important media in the world: television.
I’ll start by sharing how one television show was a part of my life as a youngster, and is even more special to me as I have gotten older.
I never used to understand why my Uncle Gerry used to watch “CBS Sunday Morning” every, well, Sunday morning.
The then-Charles Kuralt hosted program seemed so deadly-dull with its news and feature stories and peaceful segments on nature.
That’s not to say I still wouldn’t take the train from Port Jefferson to Seaford (N.Y.) for my aunt Lois’ delicious breakfasts on occasional Sundays.
I just didn’t understand why Gerry, a large and gregarious man with a voice that could barrel through Brooklyn, could sit there for an hour and a half contently and quietly watching that program.
After the passing of Kuralt some years back, Charles Osgood took over as host and nothing changed.
Except me, thank goodness.
Being a little bit older and a bit more mature now, I get why Gerry Gallagher, who also unfortunately passed in recent years, enjoyed the program so much.
The best way to describe it is like opening a Sunday newspaper without getting all the ink all over your hands.
Osgood, and a cast of fine reporters, deftly take the viewer through features on news, politics, history and culture and thanks usually to Bill Geist, a laugh or two as well.
The show’s recent piece on a goose that befriended a man at a Los Angeles park was simple but brilliant.
Perhaps that’s the best way to describe CBS Sunday Morning, as well.
Simple but brilliant.
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This column is in memory of my cousin Timothy Gallagher, who left this earth far too soon after suffering a recent heart attack.