One More Paar Story

Someone suggested I tell the story about Jack Paar walking accidentally onto a live broadcast of a game show hosted by Merv Griffin. I already did: It's here. (Griffin told it the other night on Larry King Live. Not as well, I might add.) So instead, I'll tell the story about the time Paar replaced Walter Cronkite as the host of the CBS Morning Show. It was a killer assignment: A two-hour live broadcast each day, but because of time zone differences, they had to do three hours, repeating in the third hour some of the things done in the first. Some parts of the country would get the first two hours and some would get the last two, and Paar sometimes went crazy trying to remember not to refer to things said earlier in the show because for some viewers, those things hadn't been said yet. Anyway, Cronkite had failed and Paar, the all-purpose utility infielder TV host, was brought in. There was strong sentiment at the network to dump him and reinstate Cronkite so they kept a running tally of the mail…how many letters wanted Walter back, how many letters preferred Jack. Because his career was on the line, Paar would go by the mailroom every day and check the current tally. One day he walked in and they told him, "We're not sure how to score this letter." It was a handwritten note that said, "I'm sorry Walter Cronkite is no longer on the show because I always enjoyed him." And it was signed by Jack Paar's mother.