If you grew up watching television on Saturday mornings in the 70s and early 80s, you probably recall the networks doing their best to sneak in a little educational material between the weekly doses of Super Friends and Scooby Doo. Over on ABC, they chose to teach us about grammar and government, thanks to the ever-popular Schoolhouse Rock. But if you happened to tune into CBS, news anchorman Christopher Glen taught you about current events via In The News. Running from 1971 until 1986, In the News enjoyed a respectable fifteen-year run and made us all a little smarter along the way.
Christopher Glenn, who sadly passed away in 2006, had a wonderful talent for communicating often -complex news stories in a way that a kid of most any age could comprehend, without dumbing down the story, nor boring them to tears. Most importantly, the information seeped into our cartoon-addled brains almost effortlessly, without us ever realizing that we had been stealthily educated between segments of Bugs Bunny and Far Out Space Nuts.
If you happen to remember watching In the News during the Saturday mornings of your youth, share your memories with us as we tip our hats to these informative segments and their memorable host, here at Retroland.
I loved In The News. I can’t remember what it was about, but in one segment, Josie and Alan (from Josie & The Pussycats) narrated a segment. I thought that was really cool, and hoped they would have other cartoon characters narrate as well, but I never heard any. But Christopher Glenn had a very distinct voice, and you knew even if you tuned in late, you were watching In The News. RIP Christopher.
I do vividly remember the In The News segments on CBS’s Saturday Morning Cartoon lineup. For a short time, Christopher Glenn hosted a shorter version of 60 minutes called 30 minutes. By the way, the year of Christopher Glenn’s Death was in 2006, not 1986.
Thank you for pointing out my error, which I’ve now corrected in the post. My apologies.
A nice little piece of educational time filler on CBS TV’s
saturday mornings of the past.
Thanks for these kids tv news bumpers..Mr.Glenn
I remember In The News. The theme song gave me the creeps.
LOL! Come to think of it, that theme was a little creepy!
Wow, I certainly do remember the In the News segments on CBS! I watched them every Saturday morning, and I also remember sending in a handwritten essay about the dangers of smoking when I was maybe 9 years old and in 4th grade (around 1974 or 1975, depending on what month it was). The In the News folks requested that children send in these particular essays, and not long after, a few of them were chosen to be read on air. I still remember my mom receiving the call from one of the CBS producers, saying my essay was one that an excerpt would be taken from, and when the segment aired that next Saturday, I was so excited to see my little handwritten letter on the TV screen! I sure wish there was some way I could see that segment now! RIP Christopher Glenn and God bless.
That’s a wonderful comment. Thanks for sharing!
I have a very similar memory! They must have requested essays on multiple topics, because mine was about vandalism in the schools. And I remember being more than a little freaked out to see my actual handwritten essay (on Snoopy stationery) shown on TV. I was 9 years old. From an old letter that my mother saved, I’ve deduced that it aired on May 1, 1976. If anyone reading this knows how I might get a video of it, I’d be EXTREMELY grateful!
The electronic music in these segments was very Pink Floyd “On the Run”-ish (radio stations used to use that song as the background music for their traffic reports)