User Reviews

A special filmed opening featuring Walter Cronkite, the grand old man of journalism, honors Jim Dial in his 25th year at the network. When they realize the significance of his anniversary, the crew decides to put together a roast and Murphy, finding she can't disrespect him, decides to keep it straight. Nobody else does, commenting on his straight shooting, often humorless way of presenting the news, and Jim erupts in seeming anger in his rebuttal. Murphy finds him at the Lincoln memorial afterwards where she learns the truth about how he is feeling, basically passionless now over what used to be exciting to him. It turns out that he's had a healthcare, and only Murphy can guide him into building back his confidence so he can continue hopefully for another 25 years. Charles Kimbrough, an actor from the stage, plays Jim Dial with perfection, so stoic that you fear that if he has a heart attack you may not even notice because he never shows any emotion other than seriousness. I've seen him on stage, and that booming voice is instantly recognizable, commanding yet kind, and even as Jim, he was so into the role that I never found him boring in spite of the fact that the character could easily be perceived that way. He was sort of a Greek chorus on the show, and here, he really lets the chorus boom as he tells everybody what he really thinks of them. Corky gets it the best, being told that her idea of good literature is a stop sign, and while he doesn't respond to those who roasted him, you know he's going to be better after what him and Murphy doing the conclusion. It's a really good character study of one of the show's iconic people, and that is aided by the really good writing that could have made him come off as pretentious and a blow hard had he not been played by an actor who knew how to avoid that quality in him.