Willard Scott
Encyclopedia
Willard Herman Scott, Jr. (born March 7, 1934) is an American
media personality and author best known for his television
work on NBC
's The Today Show and as the creator of the Ronald McDonald
character.
. He showed an interest in broadcasting as a 16-year-old, working in 1950 as an NBC page
at WRC-AM, NBC's owned-and-operated radio station
in Washington, D.C.
Scott then attended American University
, where he worked alongside fellow student Ed Walker
at WAMU-AM
, the university's radio station (1951–1953). Scott became a member of Alpha Sigma Phi
fraternity while at American University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts
degree in philosophy and religion.
as co-host of the nightly Joy Boys
radio program on WRC-AM. (This was interrupted from 1956-1958 when Scott served on active duty with the U.S.Navy.) Scott routinely sketched a list of characters and a few lead lines setting up a situation, which Walker would commit to memory or make notes on with his Braille
typewriter (he was blind since birth). In a 1999 article recalling the Joy Boys at the height of their popularity in the mid-1960s, The Washington Post
said they "dominated Washington, providing entertainment, companionship, and community to a city on the verge of powerful change". The Joy Boys show played on WRC until 1972 when they moved to cross-town station WWDC for another two years. Scott wrote in his book, The Joy of Living, of their close professional and personal bond which has continued to the present, saying that they are "closer than most brothers".
programs. He appeared on WRC-TV
in Washington, D.C., playing characters such as Commander Retro and Bozo the Clown
(1959–1962). In 1970, Scott began appearing on WRC-TV as a weekday weatherman
.
Another television role he performed regularly from 1963–1966 and occasionally as late as 1971 was Ronald McDonald
for a McDonald's
franchise in Washington, D.C.
. Scott wrote in his book, The Joy of Living, that he originally created the Ronald McDonald character at the fast-food restaurant chain's request.
In Morgan Spurlock
's documentary film Super Size Me
, Eric Schlosser
claims that McDonald's replaced Scott on account of his weight, supposedly concerned about McDonald's image.
, who replaced him at WRC-TV until 2010. After being inspired by a viewer request, Scott began his practice of wishing centenarian
s a happy birthday on-air in 1983.
During the 1980s, Scott routinely did weather reports on the road, interviewing locals at community festivals and landmarks. He also periodically did the program from Washington D.C., which he still considered his home. During this time, NBC executives told the bald Scott to wear a hairpiece. He complied when in New York, but refused when outside of the studio, resulting in a strange dichotomy
on the air.
In 1989, The Today Show co-host Bryant Gumbel
wrote an internal memo critical of the show's personalities. The memo was leaked to the media. Gumbel said Scott "holds the show hostage to his assortment of whims, wishes, birthdays and bad taste ... This guy is killing us and no one's even trying to reign him in." This garnered enough of a backlash that Gumbel was shown making up with Scott on the show.
Although he is no longer The Today Shows full-time weatherman, Scott continues to appear twice a week on the long-running morning program to wish centenarians a happy birthday and to substitute for regular weatherman Al Roker
during his absences. He appears from the studio lot of WBBH, the NBC affiliate in Fort Myers, Florida. He is also currently the commercial voice—taking over the job from the late Mason Adams
—of Smucker's jellies which sponsors his birthday tributes on The Today Show.
(1986-1991), where his character was married to Mrs. Poole, played by Edie McClurg
. Scott also hosted the NBC telecast of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
from 1987 until 1997 when he was replaced by Al Roker
upon Scott's retirement as Today's full-time weatherman.
In 1985, Scott was given a Private Sector Award for Public Service by U.S. President
Ronald Reagan
. Other awards include:
In 1990 Scott was granted an Honorary Doctorate from Johnson & Wales University
In 2001, American University reissued some of the old Joy Boys radio broadcasts of the 1960s on CDs
. He has also played Santa Claus
at various White House
events.
and non-fiction
books:
He has also co-authored two books with Bill Crider
:
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
media personality and author best known for his television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
work on 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...
's The Today Show and as the creator of the Ronald McDonald
Ronald McDonald
Ronald McDonald is a clown character used as the primary mascot of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain. In television commercials, the clown inhabits a fantasy world called McDonaldland, and has adventures with his friends Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird, and...
character.
Early years
Scott grew up in the Rosemont section of Alexandria, Virginia, and attended George Washington High SchoolT. C. Williams High School
T. C. Williams High School is a public high school in Alexandria, Virginia, named after former superintendent Thomas Chambliss Williams of Alexandria City Public Schools who served from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s...
. He showed an interest in broadcasting as a 16-year-old, working in 1950 as an NBC page
NBC page
An NBC page is a person usually in his or her early twenties working in various departments of the NBC television network during a one-year period as a training ground for careers in television broadcasting and entertainment...
at WRC-AM, NBC's owned-and-operated radio station
Owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry , an owned-and-operated station usually refers to a television station or radio station that is owned by the network with which it is associated...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
Scott then attended American University
American University
American University is a private, Methodist, liberal arts, and research university in Washington, D.C. The university was chartered by an Act of Congress on December 5, 1892 as "The American University", which was approved by President Benjamin Harrison on February 24, 1893...
, where he worked alongside fellow student Ed Walker
Ed Walker
Ed Walker is a Washington, D.C., radio personality. He hosts a weekly four-hour Sunday night program, The Big Broadcast, on WAMU-FM, featuring vintage radio programs from the 1930s to 1950s, such as Gunsmoke, The Jack Benny Show, The Lone Ranger, Fibber McGee and Molly, and Superman...
at WAMU-AM
WAMU
WAMU is a public radio station that services the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The station broadcasts on 88.5 FM, online at wamu.org, and on HD Radio at 88.5-HD1, 2 and 3. WAMU is on-air 24 hours a day. It is licensed to American University, and its studios are located near the campus...
, the university's radio station (1951–1953). Scott became a member of Alpha Sigma Phi
Alpha Sigma Phi
Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity is a social fraternity with 71 active chapters and 9 colonies. Founded at Yale in 1845, it is the 10th oldest fraternity in the United States....
fraternity while at American University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree in philosophy and religion.
The Joy Boys radio show
From 1955 to 1972, Scott teamed with Ed WalkerEd Walker
Ed Walker is a Washington, D.C., radio personality. He hosts a weekly four-hour Sunday night program, The Big Broadcast, on WAMU-FM, featuring vintage radio programs from the 1930s to 1950s, such as Gunsmoke, The Jack Benny Show, The Lone Ranger, Fibber McGee and Molly, and Superman...
as co-host of the nightly Joy Boys
Joy Boys (radio program)
The Joy Boys was a popular daily improvised comedy radio show in Washington, D.C., United States, between 1955 and 1974 that launched the broadcast careers of the program's co-hosts, Willard Scott and Ed Walker. The two did various skits and satirized prominent people of the day, such as Scott's...
radio program on WRC-AM. (This was interrupted from 1956-1958 when Scott served on active duty with the U.S.Navy.) Scott routinely sketched a list of characters and a few lead lines setting up a situation, which Walker would commit to memory or make notes on with his Braille
Braille
The Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two...
typewriter (he was blind since birth). In a 1999 article recalling the Joy Boys at the height of their popularity in the mid-1960s, The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
said they "dominated Washington, providing entertainment, companionship, and community to a city on the verge of powerful change". The Joy Boys show played on WRC until 1972 when they moved to cross-town station WWDC for another two years. Scott wrote in his book, The Joy of Living, of their close professional and personal bond which has continued to the present, saying that they are "closer than most brothers".
Washington, D. C., television roles
Scott spent the 1960s balancing his radio career with jobs as the host of children's televisionChildren's television series
Children's television series, are commercial television programs designed for, and marketed to children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run in the early evening, for the children that go to school...
programs. He appeared on WRC-TV
WRC-TV
WRC-TV, channel 4, is an owned and operated television station of the NBC television network, located in the American capital city of Washington, D.C...
in Washington, D.C., playing characters such as Commander Retro and Bozo the Clown
Bozo the Clown
Bozo the Clown is a clown character very popular in the United States, peaking in the 1960s as a result of widespread franchising in early television.Originally created by Alan W...
(1959–1962). In 1970, Scott began appearing on WRC-TV as a weekday weatherman
Weather forecasting
Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a given location. Human beings have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia, and formally since the nineteenth century...
.
"Ronald McDonald" character
Ronald McDonald
Ronald McDonald is a clown character used as the primary mascot of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain. In television commercials, the clown inhabits a fantasy world called McDonaldland, and has adventures with his friends Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird, and...
for a McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
franchise in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
. Scott wrote in his book, The Joy of Living, that he originally created the Ronald McDonald character at the fast-food restaurant chain's request.
In Morgan Spurlock
Morgan Spurlock
Morgan Valentine Spurlock is an American documentary filmmaker, humorist, television producer, screenwriter and journalist best known for the documentary film Super Size Me...
's documentary film Super Size Me
Super Size Me
Super Size Me is a 2004 American documentary film directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock, an American independent filmmaker. Spurlock's film follows a 30-day period from February 1 to March 2, 2003 during which he eats only McDonald's food...
, Eric Schlosser
Eric Schlosser
Eric Schlosser is an American journalist and author known for investigative journalism, such as in his books Fast Food Nation, Reefer Madness and Chew On This.- Personal History :...
claims that McDonald's replaced Scott on account of his weight, supposedly concerned about McDonald's image.
The Today Show
Scott was tapped by NBC in 1980 to become its weatherman for The Today Show, replacing Bob RyanBob Ryan (meteorologist)
Bob Ryan is a meteorologist who forecasts for WJLA, the ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C.. From 1980–2010, he served as the Chief meteorologist at Washington NBC affiliate WRC-TV. Before serving as the station's chief meteorologist for 30 years, he was previously the Today Show's first on-air...
, who replaced him at WRC-TV until 2010. After being inspired by a viewer request, Scott began his practice of wishing centenarian
Centenarian
A centenarian is a person who is or lives beyond the age of 100 years. Because current average life expectancies across the world are less than 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. Much rarer, a supercentenarian is a person who has lived to the age of 110 or more, something only...
s a happy birthday on-air in 1983.
During the 1980s, Scott routinely did weather reports on the road, interviewing locals at community festivals and landmarks. He also periodically did the program from Washington D.C., which he still considered his home. During this time, NBC executives told the bald Scott to wear a hairpiece. He complied when in New York, but refused when outside of the studio, resulting in a strange dichotomy
Dichotomy
A dichotomy is any splitting of a whole into exactly two non-overlapping parts, meaning it is a procedure in which a whole is divided into two parts...
on the air.
In 1989, The Today Show co-host Bryant Gumbel
Bryant Gumbel
Bryant Charles Gumbel is an American television journalist and sportscaster. He is best known for his 15 years as co-host of NBC's The Today Show. He is the younger brother of sportscaster Greg Gumbel.-Early life:...
wrote an internal memo critical of the show's personalities. The memo was leaked to the media. Gumbel said Scott "holds the show hostage to his assortment of whims, wishes, birthdays and bad taste ... This guy is killing us and no one's even trying to reign him in." This garnered enough of a backlash that Gumbel was shown making up with Scott on the show.
Although he is no longer The Today Shows full-time weatherman, Scott continues to appear twice a week on the long-running morning program to wish centenarians a happy birthday and to substitute for regular weatherman Al Roker
Al Roker
Albert Lincoln "Al" Roker, Jr. is an American television meteorologist as well as an actor and book author. He is best known as being the weather anchor on NBC's Today. On Monday, July 20, 2009, he began co-hosting his new morning show, Wake Up with Al, on The Weather Channel, which airs weekdays...
during his absences. He appears from the studio lot of WBBH, the NBC affiliate in Fort Myers, Florida. He is also currently the commercial voice—taking over the job from the late Mason Adams
Mason Adams
Mason Adams was an American character actor and voice-over artist.-Early life:Adams was born in Brooklyn, New York. He earned an MA degree from the University of Michigan in Theatre Arts and Speech and also attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, studying theater arts...
—of Smucker's jellies which sponsors his birthday tributes on The Today Show.
Other TV Work and Awards
Scott had a small role as Mr. Peter Poole on the NBC sitcom The Hogan FamilyThe Hogan Family
The Hogan Family is an American television situation comedy that aired from March 1, 1986 to July 20, 1991...
(1986-1991), where his character was married to Mrs. Poole, played by Edie McClurg
Edie McClurg
Edie McClurg is an American character actress. She is known for her perky North Central dialect , common to persons from Middle America.-Career:...
. Scott also hosted the NBC telecast of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, often shortened to Macy's Day Parade, is an annual parade presented by Macy's. The tradition started in 1924, tying it for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States along with America's Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit, and four years younger than...
from 1987 until 1997 when he was replaced by Al Roker
Al Roker
Albert Lincoln "Al" Roker, Jr. is an American television meteorologist as well as an actor and book author. He is best known as being the weather anchor on NBC's Today. On Monday, July 20, 2009, he began co-hosting his new morning show, Wake Up with Al, on The Weather Channel, which airs weekdays...
upon Scott's retirement as Today's full-time weatherman.
In 1985, Scott was given a Private Sector Award for Public Service by U.S. President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
. Other awards include:
- "Distinguished Virginian", Virginia Association of Broadcasters (1990)
- "Washingtonian of the Year", Washingtonian magazineWashingtonian (magazine)Washingtonian is a monthly magazine distributed in the Washington, DC area since 1965. The magazine describes itself as "the magazine Washington lives by." The magazine's core focuses are local feature journalism, guide book-style articles, and real estate advice.-Editorial Content:Washingtonian...
(1979) - "Humanitarian in Residence", National Society of Fund Raisers (1985)
- "National Partner in 4-H Citations", National 4-H4-H4-H in the United States is a youth organization administered by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture of the United States Department of Agriculture , with the mission of "engaging youth to reach their fullest potential while advancing the field of youth development." The name represents...
, US Dept of Agriculture(1984)
In 1990 Scott was granted an Honorary Doctorate from Johnson & Wales University
Johnson & Wales University
Johnson & Wales University is a private, nonprofit, co-educational, career-oriented university with four campuses located throughout the United States. Providence, Rhode Island, USA, is home to JWU's first and largest of four currently operating campuses. Founded as a business school in 1914, by...
- "Spoke at his grandson's (John Swiatek) graduation at Middleburg Academy (2011)
In 2001, American University reissued some of the old Joy Boys radio broadcasts of the 1960s on CDs
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
. He has also played Santa Claus
Santa Claus
Santa Claus is a folklore figure in various cultures who distributes gifts to children, normally on Christmas Eve. Each name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, but refers to Santa Claus...
at various White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
events.
Writings
Scott has published several fictionFiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
and non-fiction
Non-fiction
Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...
books:
- The Joy of Living
- Down Home Stories
- Willard Scott’s All-American Cookbook
- America Is My Neighborhood
- The Older the Fiddle, the Better the Tune
- If I Knew It Was Going To Be This Much Fun, I Would Have Become A Grandparent First
He has also co-authored two books with Bill Crider
Bill Crider
Bill Crider was born in Mexia, Texas. He received an M.A. at the University of North Texas . Later, he taught English at Howard Payne University for twelve years, before earning a Ph.D. at the University of Texas, where he wrote a dissertation on the hardboiled detective novel...
:
- Murder Under Blue Skies
- Murder in the Mist
External links
- Centenarian Birthday Biographies from a media production company's website
- The Joyboys tribute site.
- Willard as a top 40 DJ on the Great98 WRC tribute site.