Jessica Savitch--what was the deal

She drank.

Some frau is going to diagnose JS bi-polar, borderline in 4....3.....2....

Already a thread.

There were posts about her all the time back in the 80's--when this place was known as Mimeograph Discotheque and we had to post our responses on a physical bulletin board. One thread--started by a gay assistant who was just DONE with her--went on for years (or thirteen responses).

The Lifetime, Intimate Portrait of her is damning.

Who played her?

Bitch was hardcore, lousy driver, but still hardcore.

Coke. Mountains of coke.

Sela Ward, R6.

R8 is correct - mountains of coke.

She was the kinda gal who could drown in 6 inches of water.

She was a very driven, ambitious, emotionally disturbed woman. Pretty nuts, actually. But she liked to present the image of a very with it, together career woman in control of her life. In reality, her life was a mess. She did a lot of coke and was so nervous and anxiety-ridden that she would bite her nails and pick at her earlobes until they bled. She was anorexic. But she kept it hidden pretty well, until she did a short news segment where she appeared to be drunk or stoned.

She had two disastrous marriages. The first one was to an older man who just about went bankrupt trying in his attempts to "take care" of her in the way she wanted. Her second husband was a gay man (he was, of all things, a gynecologist) who committed suicide by hanging himself with the lease of her dog. She had a long, on and off again affair with Ron Kershaw, a news executive. They would have violent arguments that would get physical. But it was her most lasting relationship with a man.

She died in a freak accident. Her date, not seeing warning signs during a heavy rain, took the wrong exit, and the car they were in fell 15 feet into a canal, landing upside down. The doors were sealed shut by mud, so there was no way to escape. Water poured into the car, drowning them both. She was 36 years old when she died.

I read a biography on her. Highlights include her (second) husband was Ethel Kennedy's obstetrician. He committed suicide by hanging himself using their dog's leash. She was 4 months pregnant at the time and miscarried.

Also, she wasn't driving, the guy she was out to dinner with was.

We were an Action News family during her stint at KYW in Philadelphia, my dad didn't care for lady newsreaders.

Her faithful companion, Chewy the dog, drowned along with her that night in New Hope, Pa.

She was very hot stuff in the Philadelphia news arena. I never really cared for her though, she seemed very fake and too slick with every single hair in place.

She had an abortion -- she didn't miscarry.

She seems tightly wound.

I never saw that Michelle Pfeiffer-Robert Redford movie. It seemed to be one of those Lifetime movies Pfeiffer made for the big screen. Was it a whitewashed version of what's been mentioned?

"I never saw that Michelle Pfeiffer-Robert Redford movie. It seemed to be one of those Lifetime movies Pfeiffer made for the big screen. Was it a whitewashed version of what's been mentioned?"

VERY whitewashed. It would have been much more interesting if it had any resemblance to Savitch's actual tortured life, but it was just a "romance" movie.

The tv movie with Sela Ward was an attempt to depict Savitch's life the way it really was. I only saw parts of it. Sela Ward was pretty good in it.

All biopics have been lackluster and poorly cast.

How could you not get a juicy drama out of this?

I would have cast Jodie Foster, Holly Hunter, Ellen Barkin, Helen Hunt, etc. Maybe an edgy director (Jonathan Demme, Abel Ferrara) or a lurid director (Adrian Lyne, Ken Russell).

The infamous "slurred" news digest that frankly I think is far less egregious than its reputation warrants.

I agree r19

I love how Jessica's mid-Atlantic accent starts to break down as she gets more and more frustrated....reminds me of how the character of "Vicky" in the Hayley Mills version of "The Parent Trap" toward the end loses her sophisticated veneer and turns back into a Brooklyn-bred shrew.

"Gee whaddya do for fun? Throw ROCKS in the lake"

I will say...Jessica really was channeling that Studio 54,Shelly Hack,70s era glamour here..and bitch is keeping that hair IN PLACE!

I think Diane Sawyer comes across as FAR more cunty than Jessica Savitch ever did.

Remembering Jessica Savitch (video from NBC archives)

Here we see her as a guest of the NBC Today Show, being interviewed by Bryant Gumbel about her book Anchorwoman, and sharing her insight into the role of women and minorities in broadcasting.

She was in the backseat of the car the night she died, with her dog. Her boyfriend, who was driving was killed instantly. Jessica wasn't as lucky.

This is audio of Jessica working in radio back before her tv career took off.

WBBF 95BBF Rochester NY- Jessica Savitch / Ron DeFrance - June 14 1967

I thought it was established she was involved with Sue Simmons?

Miss Sue Simmons-best groundhog impersonation ever.

More info:

Keri Russell would be a good choice for a Jessica biopic today.

She was only 36? She looks much older in her Google search pictures and the clips posted above.

R30 - She drank.

THIS is a meltdown.

LOL R4

Does anybody know if she was into her Jewishness? Did she regularly go to temple, stuff like that.

Also, did anybody see here out and about during the time she was living in NYC? What was the neighborhood/building where she lived?

That YouTube clips makes it sound like she just had terrible dental work. Still, painful to watch. And what a way to go -- upside down and trapped by mud in a canal. In the rain. Jeebus Pete.

[all posts by tedious, racist idiot removed.]

Clip of Jessica from 1972 working for KHOU-TV in Houston. The trademark Jessica Savitch anchorwoman hairstyle we all remember so well had yet to become a part of her style.

Ms. Savitch bravely puts herself in harm's way on camera as an undercover decoy in a Philadelphia neighborhood where a rash of street rapes have taken place.(The clip entitled "Rape the Ultimate Violation,Pt.4" is at bottom of page at link, original airdate unknown)

[all posts by tedious, racist idiot removed.]

"Her biographers and some other sources have also asserted that Savitch was bisexual and had romantic relationships with women as well as men.[4][14][15] These assertions were disputed by Savitch's family and some of her friends after her death."

Major coke head.

She and Sue Simmons did the lez-lez. Sue would frequently have to come down from the WNBC studios in 30 Rock to the main network studio to calm Jessica down, and she was very good at that, by multiple accounts.

They even lived together for a time, until Sue moved out.

Apparently, Jessica was not really into women — she was just into whoever would give her attention.

Pray tell... I am a mere European who do not understand every single nuance of US pop culture. Why is this woman a source of eternal interest to the DL contingent? Yes, the lady was perhaps a part of the LGBT community, she had a drug problem and a tumultous personal life. Most damning of all.. her perm was WACK. Why are you still talking about her?

She was a talented-but-doomed narcissistic drug-addicted hellion with daddy issues and a borderline personality who was a pioneering TV megadiva, R43.

Are you REALLY questioning her relevance to gay men?

And she never had a perm. She did a get a closeup at the end of NBC News Update, which no other anchorperson got.

R44 I am trying to understand her relevance to gay men, hence the question. Struggling to see the talent, but then again I was not alive during her heyday. As you were, gentlemen.

Well, R2, it didn't happen in 4-3-2.... but it DID happen - just five and a half years after you predicted. KUDOS! See R44

She was almost certainly borderline, as it's diagnosed today. If you read the Nash and Blair biographies, you see that she had no sense of self and was EXTREMELY emotionally volatile.

No evidence of bipolar.

Oh I thought she killed herself. Am I mixing her up with someone else? I just remember being a little kid and hearing the grownups talk about her death as being a great tragedy.

And she looked MUCH older than 36 in r23’s video. I guess people aged differently back then.

"Up Close and Personal" is, however sanitized, unwatchable. Has anyone seen the TV movie mentioned above with Sela Ward, "Almost Golden"?

Yes, R50. Sela is great, but the movie doesn't hold up.

None of the sets, costumes, hairstyles look period — they all seem very 1995, shot-in-Toronto TV movie, and YouTube didn't exist then, so they had no access to the infamous meltdown on live TV and re-enacted it based on descriptions (which were not at all accurate).

She's the first network anchorperson to have a meltdown on live national television.

If that doesn't qualify her as Datalounge icon, I don't know what does!

R51 Thank you

I think she and Ed Bradley (60 min) dated

Yes, she dated Ed Bradley. She wrote stirringly to one of her friends about how good Ed looked naked on a beach in the moonlight. It's in one of the biographies. He was one of the few people invited to her funeral.

Her beloved German Shepherd, Chewy, drowned with her. That got to me.

She loved David Letterman and was one of the first newspeople to lend him credence by appearing on his show.

She exhibits a great sense of humor here, although I don't understand WTF is up with the outfit.

In one poignant moment, she holds up a needlepoint portrait of the dog that drowned with her a year later.

[quote] She's the first network anchorperson to have a meltdown on live national television.

I dunno. I should think Christine Chubbock, who blew her brains out during a live newscast in 1974, should have that honor.

Apparently that event spawned the idea for the movie "Network."

That wasn't national television, R58.

Fine. But I'd hardly call a little slurring a "meltdown."

Jessica Savitch...best newscaster ever, Loved her.

Read the book: Golden Girl : The Story of Jessica Savitch. It's fascinating.

So, where was the meltdown. I hardly noticed anything wrong.

Jesus fuck me. I remember this thread from its initial appearance.

^Yep. But she really was a star and drowning in the canal was tragic. A lot of posters here on Dl are familiar with New Hope, even if JS was a long time ago.

R62, have you considered maybe you’re having a meltdown?

Loved Jessica Savitch. One of the first true newscaster divas. And what more could you want than having Queen Sela Ward portray you?

Some queen is asking why the gays idolized a gorgeous/dykey/drugged-out diva, truly famous for a messy personal life, a public meltdown and a tragic death?

Really?

Diane Sawyer begs to differ.

What always amazed me about Jessica Savitch was how old she appeared. She looked and sounded like a woman in her late 40s or early 50s, but she was only in her early 30s at the height of her career.

[quote]her perm was WACK

I wonder who you're confusing her with? I can't think of any anchorwomen of the era who had perms.

R67. Funny bitch. Ha! Really!