Good golf, good tennis, or whatever makes you happy
Marvin Zindler, the quirky newscaster/consumer advocate/unmistakable personality, he of the oversized sunglasses, the white suits, the ridiculous hair, and the plastic surgeries too many to count, died yesterday of pancreatic cancer at the age of 85. I happened to be at my parents’ house yesterday (they have TV, see), so I watched KTRK’s tribute to him on the 10 o’clock news.
If you’re not from Houston, you may not have heard of him—or maybe you have—but around here, he’s a legend. I grew up watching (and making fun of) Marvin on the nightly news, but I didn’t realize that he’d been a force to be reckoned with around town for decades before I was born. When I saw him, he was either finding roach droppings in the kitchens of local restaurants or bringing doctors to foreign children’s hospitals to perform surgeries. He always stuck up for the little guy.
His nightly (weekly?) restaurant reports got funnier as the years went on. He’d list the local eateries that had recently failed health inspections, along with pictures and lists of their violations. There were all flavors of droppings, food off-temperature*, lousy dishwashing practices, and, Marvin’s favorite, slime in the ice machine. I wouldn’t have guessed that slimy ice machines were a huge health problem, but every night Marvin would rattle off a list of restaurants with slime where no slime should be.
At first he just said “slime” in a funny voice, but then they added background music and corny animations, and the whole thing snowballed until the most recent version, which featured several synchronized Marvins green-screened into an cartoon ice machine, high-fiving each other, as Marvin yelled “And now! It’s time! For the big big big big S! [list of restaurants] What did they have? All together, gang! SLIIIIIIIIIIIME IN THE ICE MACHINE!” Bonkers malonkers, that guy.
But he helped a lot of people. Thousands and thousands. They’d write to him, and he’d either solve their problems or find someone who could. A crazy crazy man, but a stand-up guy. Houston will miss him.
To see a bunch of video and other material about Marvin, you can visit KTRK’s official tribute page. Seriously, watch some videos of this guy; he’s somethin’ else.
MARvin Zindler, EYEwitness News.
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* TemperaTOOR, that is. The tribute contained an entire segment devoted to Marvin’s mispronunciations. (”Some of Marvin’s lighter moments” in the video list)
Tags: miscellany
September 24th, 2007 at 1:56 am
Omigosh, you’re so right: an absolute legend. It’s so sad to be a transplanted Texan! I have been known to occasionally quote Marvin and chuckle to myself while bewildered Arizonans stare in confusion. SLIIIIIIIIIIME in the ice machine! (That’s “sl-ahyme;” it’s two or three syllables.) Thanks for keeping me informed. I had no idea he’d passed away.