Miss The World News Polka

Realized waking up this morning/just now that last night/this morning would have been the perfect time to stay up and watch ABC's World News Now.  When I didn't have a job and didn't give a damn about staying up, I found out that the three big broadcast networks would devote their overnights to the news.  NBC had Nightwatch, which seemed recorded, and CBS had Up To The Minute, which played on a loop every hour.

But the big one, the good one, the only that's still on in sort of its same form now, is ABC's World News Now.  It played on a loop every 90 minutes, but while they did report the news (and did break in if there was any important news happening in the country or the world overnight), they understood that it was a slow period of the news day.  And so they would fill it in with other news-like segments.  Oftentimes they would be irreverent, sometimes too irreverent.  But it was new, creative, and gave people who were up at the time a reason to watch and to come back.

To signal the end of their news week, on the final segment of their show on Fridays, they would end the show with the "World News Polka," WNN's theme song, so to speak.  Over the years they have added renditions.  There's a string quartet version, one with singing glasses, a garage band, even William Shatner did one.  But I always loved tuning in to watch that when I've been able to watch the show all week.

Well, times change, of course.  I've had to find work, and it was in the day and therefore I was too tired to stay up.  Meanwhile, the budget cuts that made NBC end Nightwatch and revert to reruns and, within the past couple years, CBS decide to strip the guts of Up To The Minute and turn it into the CBS Overnight News, which only involves a reporter introducing canned pieces.

And unfortunately, World News Now has not been immune.  I have seen WNN on nights other than Friday.  Just saw it Monday/Tuesday, after coming home from New Year's Eve festivities.  And it feels less frisky, and a lot less fun.  And I have not seen it on Fridays in a long time, so I don't know if they still have the "World News Polka."  And sadly, this morning was the last time I probably could see it.  Next week I don't have work, but my parents are (or at least should be) home, so I don't know if I can wake up without getting caught.  Then every Friday after that I am back to work.  So it might be months, maybe many months, before I have a chance to stay up overnight and see the "World News Polka."

(sigh)