An Era Ends
Tomorrow night, at 11:33, the last “Weekend at Bernie’s” will air on the local NBC affiliate, WDIV, in Detroit and it’s ‘creator’ Bernie Smilovitz will sign-off for the last time as a sportscaster (at least for now).
For four decades, nearly, Smilovitz was a constant in Detroit. His longevity in doing a four-minute segment at the tail end of a newscast is rivaled by just a few. Jim Hill at KCBS2 in Los Angeles (who still looks like he could play defensive back for the Chargers) comes to mind, but there are very few.
From 1986 until now, (with a two-year stint in New York at WCBS) he was on with Mort Crim, Carmen Harlan and Chuck Gaidica every weeknight at 5,6, and 11 (Now, it’s Devin Scillian, Kimberly Gill and Kim Adams).
Consider this, when he started at Channel 4, Al Ackerman and Eli Zaret were the top two sports anchors at the station. Ackerman was the Dean of sports broadcasting in Detroit having been broadcasting since the late 1950s. He would leave the station in 1988. Zaret would follow to WJBK.
He thought about retiring last year, after the unexpected death of his wife, Dr. Donna Blackwell, of a blood clot and the deaths of his parents, both Holocaust survivors. His mother died at 97.
