Last updated July 1, 2001

		The Unofficial KTLA Morning News Home Page Created & Maintained by Michael Dunn If you want to link to the Morning News pages, please link to this page only. Winner of five Milton R. Schmidlap awards!
		Latest Events at KTLA - Barbara Beck Resigns
		First off, my apologies to everyone who's come to this site looking for news about Barbara. I'll get to the whys and wherefores about why it took me so long to update these pages in a bit. Anyway, according to a story in the L.A. Times Calendar section, Barbara Beck resigned from KTLA on May 2, 2001 (although her resignation was effective April 30). The reason for her leaving was reported as a dispute with Morning News Executive Producer Marcia Brandwynne regarding the future direction of the show. (Unfortunately, the Calendar story is no longer available at the Times' web site, at least not for free.) For the time being, Sharon Tay is working the 7-9 hours, and Gayle Anderson is working the 5:30-7 hours. OK, now that explanation I promised. What follows is my own honest opinion. Do not read anything more into it. Due to Barbara resigning, and a few other reasons, I have stopped watching the Morning News. I am no longer a fan, and I will no longer be updating these web pages. The reasons are: I honestly miss Barbara. I do not like watching Sharon. I can't stand her voice, and the show is not enjoyable for me with her on the 7-9 hours. Other personal stuff which is not suitable for public discussion. It's very disheartening to realize that KTLA management has, through various actions, now driven away two of the original anchors (the first being Michele Ruiz). I myself once left a job due to bad management. It was a great job, as I imagine the Morning News is a great job for the anchors, and things had to get really bad before I'd even consider resigning. I hope things weren't too bad or stressful for Barbara at the end. The show's 10th anniversary is coming up. July 8 is a Sunday, so I imagine they will celebrate on Friday the 6th. I suppose I will watch that day - they'll probably show lots of old footage and clips. If anything momentous happens that day, I'll post about it here. But apart from that, these pages will remain untouched. Here are some new links I've collected over the past months: Barbara Beck club at Yahoo! Sharon Tay club at Yahoo! (mostly fanboys here; don't go looking for serious discussion) LA Newsbabes club at Yahoo! Shameless plug: At the Barbara Beck club, I recently posted two sets of pictures from 1994 and 1995. Check them out if you want to relive some old hair and clothing styles. So long Morning News. Hey, at least you're still better than channel 11.
		New Stuff!
		You can reach these pages with the easy-to-remember URL http://come.to/morningnews April 18: Added the latest issue of The Morning NEWSLetter. February 28: Major update to the Online KTLA MN Fan Club section. It has been moved to its own page. January 24: Updated the Online KTLA MN Fan Club section. January 13: Added a link to the public message board in the Other Internet Resources section.
		Table of Contents
		Introduction (or, Why "Unofficial"?) The Online KTLA Morning News Fan Club - a newly-formed group of Morning News enthusiasts The Online Jennifer York Fan Club - a new group of fans of the fastest-talking traffic reporter in LA The Morning News Glossary Profiles of the anchors Other Internet resources related to the Morning News My personal Morning News thoughts and stories Current running jokes and catch phrases - essential things to know for optimum viewing pleasure Running jokes from the past - impress your friends by explaining some obscure reference to something that Sam did 3 years ago!
		Introduction (or, "Why Unofficial?")
		(flashback to the middle of 1991...) On July 8, 1991, at 7 AM, a little news show started up on KTLA Channel 5 in LA. This show was The KTLA Morning News, although it was nothing at all like the Morning News we know today. Back in the beginning, there were Carlos and Barbara (who were also nothing like the Chuck and Barbie we know today ;) ), Mark doing weather, and Eric and Michele reporting from remote locations. Barbara had really long poufy blonde hair; Michele, Eric, and Mark weren't married; and Sam, Gayle, and Jennifer weren't even there. And the show was all news. Near the end of 1991, the show had gone nowhere in the ratings, and everyone on the show knew that it wouldn't last much longer. A new exec, Joel Tator, had been brought in, and he tried to give the show a more relaxed atmosphere by spreading out newspapers on the desk. The anchors, feeling that the show was doomed anyway, also relaxed and they started joking around. The critical moment for the Morning News came in February, 1992. A series of rain storms hit the Southland and there was severe flooding in the San Fernando Valley. At that time, the only other news programs on in the morning were the three major networks' shows, which were all broadcast on a three-hour tape delay. Southland residents wanted coverage of the floods, and the network shows, all based in New York, didn't have it. KTLA set aside its normal programming and provided extensive coverage of the flooding. That brought in large numbers of Southland viewers, and once the flood crisis ended, the viewers stayed with the show. After being together for several months, the folks on the show had grown comfortable and friendly with each other, and had developed an astounding chemistry that no one could ever have foreseen. With the new relaxed atmosphere, and a big dose of craziness, the show survived.... (and now returning to the present day...) One night a few months ago, I had a thought... was there anything on the 'net relating to the KTLA Morning News? I fired up Internet FastFind and did a couple of searches. The only memorable things I came up with were the homage of Ray Brune, some references to Deborah Gibson's appearances, and a few pages that mentioned former Vice President Dan Quayle's appearance on the Morning News and the promo he did for KTLA's syndicated run of Murphy Brown. That genuinely surprised me, that the Morning News hadn't had more of a net.following after being on the air for six years. So, thus began the pages you see here. Unofficial just means that I did these pages on my own, because I love the Morning News, and I'm not working for or in any other way affiliated with KTLA. I've never even been in the neighborhood. :)
		The Online KTLA Morning News Fan Club
		The OKTLAMNFC info has been moved to its own page.
		The Jennifer York Online Fan Club
		The Jennifer York Online Fan Club (JYOFC) was started by Sheldon Sherman, for fans of the MN traffic reporter. Cathy Underwood recently took on the role of Vice President of the club. Mail Sheldon if you would like to join the club! (Note that his e-mail address recently changed, it's not JYFCPres anymore.) The JYOFC is currently seeking columnists to contribute articles to the club's newsletter. Again, mail Sheldon if you're interested. The Jennifer York Online Fan Club Home Page JYOFC Newsletters
		The Morning News Glossary
		Ever tried watching the MN with a newbie and tried to explain all the various in-jokes that dedicated MN fans know by heart? Or, did you hear a name on the show that you didn't recognize? Well, the Morning News Glossary is here to help! The Morning News Glossary contains names, places, terms, and all the other stuff that Fan Club prez Lori and I could think of. I certainly can't think of everything myself, so I need folks to help me out! So please send me any additions you have for the Glossary. The Morning News Glossary List of recent additions and changes
		Profiles of the anchors
		Each anchor has his or her own page. Take a link below to see a profile page. Barbara Beck Carlos Amezcua Eric Spillman Gayle Anderson Jennifer York Jim Newman Mark Kriski Michele Ruiz Sam Rubin Sharon Tay
		Other Internet resources
		KTLA's web site now has a section about the Morning News. There is also a public message board for Morning News discussion. Here are web sites devoted to other people on (or formerly on) the Morning News: Kurt the CyberGUY - www.cyberguy.com The Car Dudes, Mike Anson and Steve Parker - www.steveparker.com
		My personal Morning News thoughts and stories
		Morning News in the news. News and magazine articles about our favorite show. A report from the BASEketball promotion remote in Santa Monica. Mark and Jillian Barberie's fashion article from the Daily News. A letter from the old days of the MN Cinema Society What I think about Michele's departure How I got started on the Morning News I got to see Mark in person! Here's a little story of how I ended up at the gas station and what I witnessed when I got there KTLA's new graphics and set
		Current running jokes and catch phrases
		Copyrighted segments
		Running jokes from the past

	This page looks horrible when viewed at 1152x864 or higher, because the background graphic isn't that wide. :)