Does Anyone Else Miss John Tesh?

I wasn't even that wild about him when he hosted Entertaiment Tonight in the 80s and early 90s, but I miss him.

The other day I was channel surfing and stopped to watch a bit of the 1991 movie Soapdish (Sally Field, Kevin Kline, Elisabeth Shue, Whoopie Goldberg). There was a clip of John Tesh reporting entertainment news (in the movie) at his ET desk and he looked like an actual evening news anchor.

Remember that? That period in history when entertainment news programs tried to mirror news programs instead of the other way around?

I actually wrote a little bit about this in 2005, after catching the CBS Evening News:

Several evenings ago I was vaguely watching the CBS Evening News when this sign off to a story caught my full attention: "It's unclear if any new CSI evidence is available, but it's clear this Cold Case is warming up." Jeez, I thought. Not only has the media become the new paparazzi, they're managing to push network television programs, too?

I love entertainment reporting as much as the next guy. Jimi, the heroine in Whiskey Road: A Love Story, is a paparazza and I support some of her views. But I turn to Comedy Central to watch The Daily Show every evening, not only to see news clips I know the regular news stations won't show, but because it's painful to watch reporters try to make serious news entertaining. They didn't sign up for that and it shows.

So, John Tesh, come back. Maybe news anchors will start trying to imitate you.