Memories of Marvin

Houstonist landed her after departing from a small media market town where the most colorful television news personality was the local weatherman with the bad toupee - think Brick from Anchorman. Naturally we were blown away by the loud delivery, blue sunglasses and long earlobes that were Marvin Zindler.

His ear splitting delivery of his tag line - "MAR-vin ZINDLER, EYE-witness NEWS!" - emblazoned the phrase in the memories of Houstonians despite hearing it only a few times. Bobby, an old roommate, still answers the phone with that phrase when we call him. Bobby only lived in Houston for part of a summer nine years ago.

Zindler's passing represents the end of a news era during which journalism and outlets for information have undergone a sea change. Weblogs have changed the face of traditional journalism and information sharing. Bloggers got active as news of Zindler's fate and death spread across the Internet.

Off the Kuff's Charles Kuffner relates his first Marvin experience from 20 years ago.

I was doing a little channel surfing and came across a KTRK newscast while Marvin was in mid-rant. I stopped to watch, mesmerized. After a few seconds, I'd decided I must have stumbled across an oddly-timed episode of "Saturday Night Live", even though it wasn't Saturday, it was the 6 PM news, and "SNL" was broadcast on NBC, not ABC, because there was just no way this was for real. But then Marvin handed things back to Dave Ward or whoever was in the anchor's chair that night, and I realized, no, that really was for real. Later on, after I came to live in Houston, I understood.

Houston blogger, Slampo, summed up it well. "We won’t see his like again. He was sure enough from another time, before everything got so brainlessly serious and money-slick."

That's a fact.

Thank you, Marvin.

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Photo: flickr user The Rocketeer.