Television Favorites of TV Sportscasters
by Laura Nachman
Bucks County Courier Times
December 10, 2004

Here are the favorite shows of some of Philadelphia's television sportscasters:

WPVI weekend sports anchor Phil Andrews: I like "Desperate Housewives," the "CSI" shows, "The Apprentice," and a lot of European soccer. I grew up in England, Germany and Italy, so I am impartial.

Comcast SportsNet anchor Leslie Gudel: On the rare occasion I get to watch TV (nobody warned me this baby thing keeps you so busy), here are my shows of choice: "Without A Trace," "Law and Order" any of them, "60 Minutes," "Extreme Home Makeover," "CSI" and "Biography."

WCAU weekend sports anchor John Clark: "Seinfeld" - the wittiest show in the history of television, "Curb Your Enthusiasm" - the second wittiest, "Everybody Loves Raymond," and "Boiling Point" on MTV.

CN8 sports director Lou Tilley: "The Larry Sanders Show" was the best ever done on what TV stars are really like ... Artie is an all-time classic, "Seinfeld," and I also really loved the first three seasons of "Frasier."

WTXF weekend sports anchor Bill Vargus: Other than news and sports, I really don't watch any TV shows, except "Animal Face-Off" on the Discovery Channel. It's like watching boxing, except it uses hydraulic machines and computer generated images to replicate the strengths of each animal instead of using the animals themselves.

KYW sports reporter Garry Cobb: I watch "SportsCenter" on ESPN, of course. I don't watch a lot of television. I watch movies and the cable news stations FOX, MSNBC and CNN.

Desperate move

Due to the Eagles game on ESPN and WPVI at 8:30 p.m. Sunday, "Desperate Housewives" will air at 7 p.m. on WPVI (Bree Van de Camp for President!). Mike Patrick, Joe Theismann, Paul Maguire and Dresher native Suzy Kolber will do the game for ESPN.

Last respects

More than 200 people attended the funeral of WIP 610-AM operations manager Neal Newman, who died of a heart attack at the age of 49 last week.

Angelo Cataldi, Rhea Hughes, Howard Eskin, Glen Macnow and Rob Charry of WIP paid their respects, as well as former WIP personalities Steve Fredericks and Mike Missanelli. Mid-day co-hosts Anthony Gargano and Steve Martorano could not attend because their shift was the same time as the funeral. Also, Dave Coskey of the Sixers and John Brazer of the Phillies were there.

Hockey strike

Poor Jim Jackson will get out of the WIP graveyard shift with Luci Jones to do a hockey game. He will announce Team Russia vs. Team World at 8 p.m. Monday on CN8.

It is nice to hear the late Gene Hart and see former players like Peter Zezel (swoon), Ron Sutter and Lindsay Carson (double-swoon) on those old "Hungry for Hockey" games on Comcast SportsNet.