Information AboutTed Koppel |
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Ted Koppel , anchor of the ABC News program Nightline .]] Edward James "Ted" Koppel (born February 8 , 1940 ) is an American Journalist , best known as the former anchorman for ABC's '' Nightline ''. Koppel was born in Lancashire, England after his Jewish parents fled Germany due to the rise of Hitler and the Nazis. He graduated from Syracuse University with a Bachelor Of Science degree and from Stanford University with a Master Of Arts degree in mass communications research and Political Science . He is a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity. Koppel started working at ABC in 1963, first as a foreign correspondent for the network. He is most widely known as the long-time lead anchorman for '' Nightline '', a position he held when the program began in 1980 . Koppel gave up that position on November 22 , 2005 . Following ''Nightline'' Koppel has taken on a number of roles which span various formats of News Media :
DEPARTURE FROM ''NIGHTLINE'' On November 22 , 2005 , Koppel stepped down from Nightline after 25 years with the program and left ABC after 42 years with the network. His final Nightline broadcast did not feature clips highlighting memorable interviews and famous moments from his tenure as host, as is typical when an anchor retires. Instead, the show recalled Koppel's 1995 interviews with retired Brandeis University sociology professor Morrie Schwartz , who was dying of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease). For this broadcast, Koppel interviewed sports journalist Mitch Albom , who had been a student of Schwartz. Albom talked about how the Nightline interviews led to him contacting Schwartz personally, visiting him weekly and eventually publishing the book '' Tuesdays With Morrie '', chronicling lessons about life learned from Schwartz. on Nightline in 1995 .]] After the show's last commercial break, Koppel made his final remarks prior to signing off: :There's this quiz I give to some of our young interns when they first arrive at ''Nightline''. I didn't do it with the last batch; it's a little too close to home. "How many of you," I'll ask, "can tell me anything about Eric Sevareid ?" Blank stares. "How about Howard K. Smith or Frank Reynolds ?" Not a twitch of recognition. " Chet Huntley ? Jack Chancellor ?" Still nothing. " David Brinkley " sometimes causes a hand or two to be raised, and Walter Cronkite may be glad to learn that a lot of young people still have a vague recollection that he once worked in television news. :What none of these young men and women in their late teens and early 20s appreciates, until I point it out to them, is that they have just heard the names of seven anchormen or commentators who were once so famous that everyone in the country knew their names. Everybody. :Trust me, the transition from one anchor to another is not that big a deal. Cronkite begat Rather , Chancellor begat Brokaw , Reynolds begat Jennings . And each of them did a pretty fair job in his own right. You've always been very nice to me, so give this new anchor team for ''Nightline'' a fair break. If you don't, I promise you the network will just put another comedy show in this time slot. Then you'll be sorry. TRIVIA
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