THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 24, 1995 TAG: 9508240010
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
TODAY'S TV buzzzzzz:
You can't say you haven't been warned - As a preview of things to come in the fall, NBC tonight moves its mega-hit, ``Friends,'' to 8 p.m. From now on, that is where you'll find ``Friends'' going up against snoopy ol' Jessica Fletcher of ``Murder, She Wrote'' on CBS. To ease the withdrawl, NBC tonight shows a second episode of ``Friends'' in its old 9:30 p.m. time slot.
Next time, send some crabcakes - It's nice to have friends in high places. WAVY's news director, Gary Stokes, used to work at WJZ in Baltimore. So did reporter Greg Starddard, who also backed up the anchors at Channel 13 up there.
When Stokes needed a weekend co-anchor to replace Kelly Wright, he hired the 37-year-old Starddard. Starddard, a native of Cincinnati and a graduate of the University of Cincinnati, also worked for stations in San Diego, Tampa, Fla., and Chattanooga, Tenn. He'll team with Lisa Parker on the Channel 10 newscasts.
Starddard arrived last week just in time to be part of WAVY's team coverage of the Hurricane Felix watch. It will take time, said Starddard, to learn the sweep and scope of Hampton Roads. And how the natives pronounce the names of places. Start with ``Poquoson,'' Greg. And visit Pungo.
Call it the pine, pork and peanuts capital of the world - Even small towns can be famous for 15 minutes. Look at Wakefield, one of the three W's on Route 460, Norfolk to Petersburg. (The others are Windsor and Waverly.)
On the new syndicated ``Feldman'' show, seen Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. on WVEC, they toss darts at a map to select a City of the Week.
When the dart landed on Wakefield, a town with one traffic light, a booming business in live bait, and the first peanut museum in the U.S., host Michael Feldman invited townie Candice Pedigo to appear on camera and promote Wakefield, all bricks and about 2,500 people.
Pedigo talked about the coal trains rumbling past Wakefield on the way to Norfolk. And the recent passing of her 97-year-old grandmother. She also announced that at the Wakefield post office, they've driven spikes into the bricks to discourage loitering.
``Feldman'' has a trial run of eight episodes this summer. A talk show with the gentle touch.
Isn't your hearing the first thing to go? - When I was monitoring how the local network affiliates covered the approach of Hurricane Felix last week, I noted that WTKR's Dale Gauding was among the troops on the front lines, reporting on the ``broiling'' surf at dawn's early light on the Outer Banks.
Gauding, in a huff, called to say, ``Not `broiling,' dummy. The word is `roiling.' '' I looked it up. ``Roiling'' means to make a liquid muddy or cloudy by stirring up sediment as in, ``The sea is roiling beneath the storm.''
Speaking of WTKR, what's this I hear about a new set taking shape in secret for Tom Randles, Ed Hughes and the other anchors? Can't wait to see it.
Call it the impossible dream - When a talented wrestler from Norfolk, Wayne Boyd, tried and failed at the age of 38 to make the U.S. Olympic team, it was a heck of a story. It's the kind of a climb-the-highest-mountain story you see played out in movies-of-the-week on television.
Surprise. Boyd's quest is the basis of the script used to film ``One More Shot!,'' in North Hollywood, Calif., where Boyd has been living for the last 10 years or so. He was a collegiate champion at Temple U.
Chip Fraser, of Web Productions in North Hollywood, who was a classmate of Boyd's at Norview High, said the two hour and 44-minute-long film is just about wrapped up. Fraser expects to release the film in theaters nationwide early in 1996, but then again, it may end up on television.
Boyd plays Brock Jones, a character not unlike himself. ``Full of anxieties and demons which he overcomes,'' said Fraser, who says the film is a tribute to amateur wrestling, which is a very big sport in Hampton Roads. by CNB