NBC News Overnight
Encyclopedia
NBC News Overnight was a television
news
program on the NBC
television network
airing weekday mornings from 1:30 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. from July 5, 1982 to December 3, 1983 for 367 telecasts. The program was noteworthy because during this era a large majority of TV stations signed off between 1 and 3 a.m., with the rest running obscure syndicated shows and old movies.
president Reuven Frank
, who conceived the show as inexpensive overnight programming after Late Night with David Letterman
. Linda Ellerbee
and Lloyd Dobyns
originally anchored the broadcast. Bill Schechner replaced Dobyns in November 1982. Herb Dudnick was the program's first executive producer and was succeeded by Deborah B. Johnson.
to Countdown with Keith Olbermann
, many have attempted to imitate Overnights signature style of combining hard news features with incisive commentary and light hearted stories.
The Seven Network
in Australia
had a program with the same name (minus the NBC) airing overnights on weeknights between 1985 and 1989. Clips from NBC News programs would often be shown within the show.
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
news
News
News is the communication of selected information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience.- Etymology :...
program on the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
television network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
airing weekday mornings from 1:30 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. from July 5, 1982 to December 3, 1983 for 367 telecasts. The program was noteworthy because during this era a large majority of TV stations signed off between 1 and 3 a.m., with the rest running obscure syndicated shows and old movies.
Key personalities
NBC News Overnight was the brainchild of NBC NewsNBC News
NBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is...
president Reuven Frank
Reuven Frank
Reuven Frank was an American broadcast news pioneer.Born in Montreal, Quebec, Israel Reuven Frank earned a bachelor's degree at City College of New York and a graduate degree in journalism from Columbia University...
, who conceived the show as inexpensive overnight programming after Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...
. Linda Ellerbee
Linda Ellerbee
Linda Ellerbee is an American journalist who is most known for several jobs at NBC News, including Washington, DC correspondent, host of the Nickelodeon network's Nick News, and reporter and co-anchor of NBC News Overnight, which was recognized by the jurors of the duPont Columbia Awards as...
and Lloyd Dobyns
Lloyd Dobyns
Lloyd Allen Dobyns, Jr. born is a former NBC news reporter and correspondent.Born in Newport News, Virginia, he graduated from Washington and Lee University in 1957. He started his broadcasting career in his hometown, eventually serving as an anchor at WAVY television in Portsmouth/Norfolk/Newport...
originally anchored the broadcast. Bill Schechner replaced Dobyns in November 1982. Herb Dudnick was the program's first executive producer and was succeeded by Deborah B. Johnson.
Critical response
NBC News Overnight was widely regarded as one of the smartest television news shows. Appealing to an eclectic audience of college students, nursing mothers, and late shift workers, the show broke the conventional "lowest common denominator" style of most news programs and injected humor into an otherwise boring medium, while providing news analysis usually unseen on other major-network newscasts. TIME named it one of the best programs of 1982, calling it "TV's wittiest, toughest, least snazzy news strip", and, after the program left the air, one of the best programs of 1983. The duPont Columbia Awards awards jury cited NBC News Overnight as "possibly the best written and most intelligent news program ever."Humorous sign offs
During the show's early months the anchors were known for signing off in a humorous fashion. For example, during one installment Dobyns was given a very long, complex word to say and he stumbled over it; at the end of that broadcast the anchor took a moment to praise his writing staff, only to light-heartedly threaten to "take it all back" if they ever included such a word in his scripts again. Dobyns and then Ellerbee closed each show by saying, "And So It Goes." It became a bit of a catch-phrase and was the title of her first autobiographical book.Influences
NBC News Overnight was the inspiration for many news shows. From World News NowWorld News Now
World News Now is an American overnight news program broadcast on American Broadcasting Company's television network. Its tone is often lighthearted, irreverent and humorous...
to Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Countdown with Keith Olbermann is an hour-long weeknight news and political commentary program that airs on Current TV, where it began airing on June 20, 2011. The program was broadcast on MSNBC from March 31, 2003, to January 21, 2011. On MSNBC, the show presented five selected news stories of...
, many have attempted to imitate Overnights signature style of combining hard news features with incisive commentary and light hearted stories.
The Seven Network
Seven Network
The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...
in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
had a program with the same name (minus the NBC) airing overnights on weeknights between 1985 and 1989. Clips from NBC News programs would often be shown within the show.