THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 21, 1996 TAG: 9602210053
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
EARLIER THIS week on ``Good Morning America,'' viewers watching ABC between 7 and 9 a.m. learned how to age fearlessly. Thursday, a crew from ``GMA,'' led by medical correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman, will visit Norfolk to continue the education of America's early risers.
The subject, class, is helping infertile couples establish a pregnancy.
This will be an hourlong lesson originating from the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine at the Eastern Virginia Medical School. ``GMA'' plans to devote the entire hour from 8 to 9 a.m. to the donor egg program and other wonders unfolding at the Jones Institute.
Good morning, Norfolk.
How about one big fat hour of network TV time free of charge to help promote one of the great things about your city?
You got it.
Opening the segment on the Jones Institute will be Elizabeth Carr, with a good morning greeting from her home in Massachusetts. She was the first of about 1,700 babies born as the result of in vitro fertilization at the Norfolk clinic. That was 14 years ago.
``GMA'' camera crews, headed by producers Sue Wagner and Penny Fleming (Marc Burstein is ``GMA's'' executive producer), arrived in Norfolk early this week to make ready for Thursday's mostly live telecast. They were here earlier in the month taping segments.
``It's a big deal,'' said Wagner. ``We intend to show both aspects of this story - the cutting-edge science involved and the human drama.''
ABC will bring on the McNairs from Plymouth, N.C., who had a baby, Caleb, 2 1/2 years ago by in vitro fertilization and intend to go through the process again.
Also appearing on ``Good Morning America'' will be couples who have been on ``the infertility treadmill for years,'' to quote Wagner, and are undecided about what to do next.
Cutting-edge technology. Human drama.
You get it all this week on ``GMA'' plus fruit flies with anti-aging genes and hypnotists who all but eliminated ``GMA'' weather guy Spencer Christian's fear of snakes. Who says the circus is the greatest show on Earth? Have you caught ``GMA'' lately?
While Snyderman is reporting on the Jones Institute story in Norfolk, and interviewing Drs. William E. Gibbons and Suheil J. Muasher among others, co-hosts Charles Gibson and Joan Lunden will be taking part from New York City.
Snyderman is a surgeon - specializing in ear, eyes, nose and throat - who also happens to be terrific on TV. She's married and the mother of three. She had surgery to do in San Francisco before flying into Norfolk today.
Does being a TV doctor take up a lot of time? Intrude on her practice? It does, indeed, Snyderman said. But she'll keep on with ``GMA.''
Somebody saw her doing play-by-play of a tonsillectomy on TV about 13 years ago and decided she had a future on the tube. So now it's Snyderman and Dr. Timothy Johnson giving out medicine that is good for you on ``GMA.''
The show is in its 21st year. Lunden has been aboard for 19, Christian for nine, Gibson for eight. ``GMA'' recently returned to the ABC News family. But that hasn't changed the show much. It's still very much show biz.
I just love Gibson's definition of what ``GMA'' is all about.
``We're these three chirpy twerps on a couch who say, `Won't you invite us into the sanctity of your home although we know the beds aren't made, the dishes aren't done, the kids are running around and you look a fright?' It's very personal contact with the viewers,'' he told TV writers in Los Angeles not long ago.
On Thursday, ``GMA'' makes personal contact with Norfolk. by CNB