News Odyssey Commentaries

In 1997-2000 I was a commentator on the Odyssey TV Network (it is now Hallmark). They had a weekly show about religion news, and I would write a commentary at home and email it for them to put up on the TelePrompter. Then I'd fly to Nashville one morning, where someone would pick me up at the airport and take me to the studio. There they'd put me in makeup, and I'd record the commentary, which was only a few minutes long. (I don't know if they still use something like a TelePRompter, but it was a screen that fit over the camera lens, so as I read the words I was looking into the camera.) In the afternoon I'd fly home again. This is a compilation of the commentaries I did over that time period, and it's an interesting mix. You'll see me gain weight and lose it again, try out different glasses and give up on contacts, and grow my hair out. I had learned to wear a sweater or jacket that provided something they could clip the mic to, with the mistake that when I went to record the Princess Diana one, I was wearing a jacket with a narrow black and white stripe, and it was "strobing" under the cameras--the lines appeared to vibrate. So I had to do that one with the jacket off, and felt so self-conscious about my extra-plump arms. Another thing that changes: while most of the pieces were shot in Nashville, some of them were recorded remotely, from a borrowed studio at CNN on Capital Hill. The longish piece on the Bill Clinton scandal was done there, and the other commentator with me was also wearing a red dress, something you really hope won't happen. One thing that seemed odd to me was that, when I wrote a commentary for NPR, the editor would go over it very closely and make lots of changes, like she was editing a magazine. But recording for television was different, and they were very hands-off, seeing it as my right to say whatever I wanted, as if it was a news event. (In fact, with a late commentary called "Squirrel," when I went to record it I found that the hosts and crew couldn't understand it, and I really wished they had given me some feedback ahead of time.) I have never figured out why those two similar media are so different in that way. Fun to see these clips again, and see what issues everybody was talking about (and what outfits we were wearing) at that time.