Giving Fondren the Eyes
During its 30-year run, the television series The Eyes of
Texas was a staple diet for viewers hungry for information about the
Lone Star State. The show went off the air in 1999, but Fondren Library
is ready to serve up another Texas-sized helping.
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| Ray Miller discusses the long-running series
he created, The Eyes of Texas. Rice has become the curator of
a group of theme shows edited from the series. |
The half-hour program about the state, its people, and its history
began airing on KPRC-TV/Channel 2 in 1969, becoming the longest-running
regularly scheduled television program in Houston history. In later
years, it was syndicated statewide and was required viewing for
many Texas history classes. Today more than 500 episodes of the
show are preserved in the archives of KPRC, which retains the copyright.
This spring, KPRC provided Fondren with nearly 50 theme shows made
by incorporating material from the old videotapes. The theme shows
will be archived in the Woodson Research Center, which houses special
collections at Fondren Library. By the university’s charter,
Fondren is open to the public, and the library will make copies
of the tapes available at the reserve desk.
The idea of packaging the tapes into new shows and archiving them
was initiated by nationally syndicated columnist, Fox News commentator,
and KPRC alumnus Cal Thomas, who contacted Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
and asked for her help.
Hutchison, herself a former KPRC reporter, contacted Don Graham,
president of the Washington Post holding company, which
owns the station, to ask if they would turn the tapes over to Rice
as a repository. “The Eyes of Texas—better
than any documentary that I’ve ever seen—really depicts
what makes Texas special,” said Hutchison at the dedication.
“It was just a wonderful series.”
“Rice is pleased to be the curator for the new compilations
of The Eyes of Texas,” said Rice president Malcolm
Gillis. “These programs will provide a rich source of Texas
culture—some of which is slipping away from us—for libraries
and schools across the state.”
Also on hand were former KPRC news director and series creator Ray
Miller, series producer Gary James, and current KPRC vice president
and general manager Steve Wasserman. Miller noted that The Eyes
of Texas was the first television program “to be devoted entirely
to Texana” and said that when it was launched, he wouldn’t
have predicted its enduring appeal. “It’s been my observation
in my long career of observing that most people fail to realize
when they are doing something that might be significant,”
he said. “So I did not give any thought at all at the beginning
of this series beyond just putting it on the air. But after it had
been on the air for a few years, I did begin to think that it ought
to be saved.”
Miller said it was his dream to have the series archived at Rice.
“It was my first and only choice.”
—Margot Dimond
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