Tonight I was flipping channels when I ran across a PBS station that showed a man underwater collecting sea urchins. I stopped to watch, but this guy’s annoying voice took me aback.
Me: “I can’t stand that guy’s voice.”
Lisey: “Have you ever seen this guy before?”
Me: “No, what is this?”
Lisey: “That is Huell Howser. He goes all over California doing travel stuff like that, he’s been on t.v. here forever. I think he’s from Tennessee.”
Sure enough, he was born about 15 minutes from where I was born.
Howser became the subject of controversy in the summer of 1979 when he did a story about how the former Tennessee Governor’s Mansion was slated for demolition to make way for a Popeye’s Fried Chicken outlet. He ignored management’s orders to not mention the story on-air. His defiance led to a thirty-day suspension, but before the suspension was over, Howser had secured new employment. He has often since stated that he might still be “looking for more pet pigs around Nashville”[citation needed] if this incident had never occurred.