February 5th / 7th, 2010
"Frank Deal, a Very Punny Guy"
Most of us dread the arrival of wintry weather, but Frank Deal always
thrived on it. That's because it gave him funny fodder for his cannonade of
jokes, such as, "How sleet it is", and "Be it ever so numble, there's no place
like Nome". Here in the Triad, Frank's light-hearted approach to weather
was appointment television for nearly thirty years. He died last week at the
age of 84.
I first met Frank in 1977. Back then, I was producing special programs and
interviews for WFMY-TV, featuring stars like Bob Hope, Red Skelton, and
Vincent Price. One day I went into program manager Jack Markham's office and
asked if I could produce a late night variety series to go on opposite
NBC's new Saturday Night Live show. Jack greenlit production of a pilot which
we titled, "Grab Bag". The pilot included live music, movie reviews, and
comedy sketches, such as a fake telethon hosted by Jim Wigglesworth. But the
highlight of the program was a roundtable discussion I had with three TV
weathermen: Glenn Scott from WXII; Jerry Merritt, then with WFMY; and Frank
who was at WGHP.
"Grab Bag" never aired because WFMY considered it irreverent and too
risque for local standards. Too bad, because with a little tweaking it could
have still been on the air today. Spilled milk. Anyway, the weather roundtable
was a scream, by anyone's standards, and Frank was a big reason why. I had
known Glenn and Jerry for a number of years, but this was my first time
working with Frank. Asked if it was his job as a weatherman to inform or
perform, Frank responded, "This has the odor of a legitimate question.
Certainly it's both. You have to inform with weather, but after all, this IS show
biz and you do have to perform. I think even a newscast is, in a sense, a
performance, but you are informing too". I repeated the question for Glenn,
who said, "I just try to kill a quick three minutes". That answer put Frank
on the floor laughing, proving that he was not only a great performer, but
a great audience as well.
Not long after that pilot program was taped, I was asked by WFMY to do the
11pm weather five nights a week. Following Frank's example, I tried to be
funny. Sometimes I succeeded, other times not. Anyway, a few months later,
noted author Jim Clark approached Frank, Glenn, and me about participating
in a cover story that he was writing for Greensboro magazine which would
focus on zany TV weather broadcasters. The interviews were conducted
separately, but the three of us came together for the cover photo shoot. The
photographer asked us to improvise a funny pose, so I grabbed an umbrella, Frank
picked up a watering can, and Glenn placed a step ladder in the shot.
Frank ascended the ladder and pretended to pour water on us, as if he was
controlling the rain.
In real life, Frank might not have controlled the weather, but he knew it
backwards and forwards. Unlike me, Deal was an honest to goodness
meteorologist who knew exactly what he was talking about. He commented to Jim Clark,
"Understanding the weather is important, so I try to communicate
meteorological tidbits to viewers. Humor helps the information go down". And what
humor it was. Even back then, Frank boasted of having a notebook containing
over 4,000 weather-related jokes. To paraphrase Frank, he was "Our man in
the Triad". But he was so much more. Frank was a showman, a singer, and a
comedic actor, and he was also very serious about being funny. Yes, Frank
Deal was a "hail" of a man, and he will be missed.
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