NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — March 1984. What was on TV back then? CBS primetime included "Magnum P.I." and "Cagney & Lacey."
During this, NewsChannel 5 was just about to introduce something new to the schedule something new in the morning. Development ran for six months, from 1983 to 1984.
Tuwanda Coleman was a studio camera operator at the time and helped build the set for this show coming to 5.
"It was just like a major ta-doo," Tuwanda said. "We did not have a blueprint. Nobody had been doing anything like this show before, so we didn't know what to expect."
The show went live.
"We wanted them to see a variety show, like a magazine," Tuwanda said. "It was fashion, cooking, meeting interesting and fun people."
It was called Talk of the Town. The original host was Debbie Alan. The show was built around her.
"Everybody loved Debbie," Tuwanda continued. "She was so cute, so bubbly, so fun."
She was also genuinely adventurous. Clips from the NewsChannel 5 archive show Debbie leaping from a plane, trying to break a board with her knuckles, and even throwing a basketball to a trained bear.
Someone was just about to join Debbie.
"I was co-anchoring weekend news with Oprah," said former NewsChannel 5 personality Harry Chapman. "I was offered an opportunity at that time to be vice president of Belmont."
5 wanted Harry back as a co-host to Debbie for Talk of the Town. He was in.
"I was kinda the big brother," Harry said. "She was kinda the little sister, always creating stuff going on. I could kinda balance it out."
With Debbie, Harry, and Joe Case the right chemistry was there.
"You never know what might happen," Tuwanda said. "You just knew it was going to be fun!"
"Well, it was!" Harry added. "Whatever your day was like, you could go to Talk of the Town and have fun for a half hour or an hour. That's what we brought to the television audience."
Things were always going off the rails.
"I think of the buffalo," Tuwanda laughed. "He went on our floor in the studio, everywhere. It was the funniest thing."
"What a buffalo is doing in the studio, to begin with, I don't know," Harry added. "Whatever happened, you rolled with it."
The hosts welcomed people in, and they shared their lives. When Debbie left Talk of the Town, the show's executive producer stepped in, Meryll Rose.
"I guess because I'd been living with the team for a couple of years, I felt totally comfortable with it," Meryll said. "Fun things happen. To perhaps be the bright spot in somebody's day, that's kind of a heart thing for me. They could see that we were genuine, that we genuinely loved each other, and they got to be part of the fun."
Tuwanda, who'd literally helped build the show, joined the team on-air.
"I thought, 'This is my dream job,'" Tuwanda said. "It is fun. You get to meet interesting people."
"Former president Jimmy Carter was a guest," Harry said. "John McCain, who I found to be incredibly awesome. Just when Garth Brooks was starting out, he was happy to be on Talk of the Town."
"One of my absolute favorites was getting to interview Julie Andrews," Meryll added. "I hoped she'd be as lovely and gracious as she appeared, and she absolutely was. We had so much fun."
Of course, other familiar faces have become part of the Talk of the Town story including Heather Mathis and Lelan Statom.
"People who come into the studio are a little starstruck," Tuwanda said. "They go, 'That's Lelan!'"
Back in the 80s, a group of people who created a show had no idea it'd one day celebrate a 40th anniversary.
"And now, those of us who are alumni get to be fans," said Meryll. "We get to sit and watch the show continue. It's a sense of pride. It's a sense of camaraderie that continues."
"I feel like I was part of something special," Tuwanda added.
"Talk of the Town was my life, my career," said Harry. "When I look back at my career, that's the benchmark, that's what I look back to. Harry Chapman. Talk of the Town. Debbie used to like saying Talk of the Town was like chatting over the fence, and that's kinda the way we did, a window into the Nashville community. I've been retired a long time, and I can still go in stores and people say, 'I watched you with my mother, my grandmother. You were in my home every day.' I don't know how to describe that. That's the most wonderful feeling in the entire world, to know your life had some kind of impact. To know it's still around and still popular and still has influence on people is just incredible, incredible."
Journalism is at its best when we can shine a light on an issue that needs more attention. Once again, Hannah McDonald does this beautifully by highlighting the hardships of teens aging out of the foster care system. I learned something new in her reporting and am inspired by the work I AM NEXT is doing to make a difference. I think you will be too!
-Carrie Sharp
