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Fast Chat tr ffimkmr

E'S THE

'n qt o

nation's best-known weather

forecaster.
Yet

time to go up and get dressed, and usually the relatives would

start arriving around

1 o'clock and dinner was about 2,2:30, give or take. And by 4, everybody was in various states of undress in a tryptophan stupor.
Then the lootball games would come on.

Roker of NBC's "Today" could neuer haue forecast the path that led him to become Ameri-

Al

ca's inforrnal First Weatheicaster, follow ing in the fqotsteps of

his mentor Willard Scott. "I got this totally by accident," Roker
says modestly.

"I

Yeah, although we didn't watch much. It's funny, my father would put the football
game on because he felt he was sort of supposed to, but he was mostly asleep. So

didn't

euen intend to

be on camera." A com-

munications major at
the State Uniuersity College at Oswego, he

we'd wait

till

he start-

wanted to be a TV

ed snoring and then change the channel.

director. "But my
department chairmctn, at the end of my sophomore year of
:,i

college, put me up for a job in Syracuse as

ri
i.i

lKids-show hostl Sandy Becker was on in the afternoon, "The Sandy Becker Show." Yeah, and "Wonderama was on Sunday and lso was Chuck McCann withl "Let's Have Fun" . . not to
be confused

with

"Just for Fun."

This was in St. Albans, Queens?

lilf;;,*"',o *"",i!f ?&'n;'i'!Jf!,:;;;",. classes, strictly

ffi

Yep. My mother

still lives there. Same

house.
Every ThanksgiYing we get new balloons in the palade. Ale we ever going to see an Al Boker balloon?
Newsday Photo / Bruce Gilbert

;.I"fl:K for

;#k Sy

". requirement, and I ,,,,.:. got the job." '',', That college
gig, at CBS ''- affiliate WT\/H, quickly led to weathercasting at the Washington, D.C., independent station WTTG; at WKYC / Cleueland and, in 1983, NBC's New York City flagship station, WNBC / 4. It also led to feature reporting and celebrity interuiews on "Today" and, for two years, Roker's talk show on CNBC. Roher, 47, is an author ("Don't Mahe Me Stop This Car! Aduentures in Fatherhood"), has a TY production cornp&ny, a line of official Al Roker rnerchandise and - well, hey what can you say after "Al Roker chains"? Roher talks with freelance writer Frank Louece about two New York

the science

already am! (Laughs.)

Some would say

Thanksgiving?

Well, y'know, when you think of ing vehicles, you don't think "Tom Brokaw." Could Tom Brokaw do it? Absolutelyl He could absolutely host the Thanksgiving Day Parade!
floats, balloons and celebrities on mov-

There was an episode of your fellow net$rork show "Erasier" in which Ftasier Crane lulfilled his childhood dteam of hosting Seattle'i annual Christmas p-arade.

llow, now, 0K, the self-deprecating humor, fine. I want you to know I did not (laughing) bring up anything about your weight. As a matter 0f tac[ I want to ask you: Don't you evet get tired of people makinif all these weight iokes at your expense? Don't you evel want to say, "All right! Enough alteady! l'm a human being,
lemembel?"

institutional euents he'll co-host: the

Macy's Thanksgiuing Day Parade (NBC, Thursday, 9 a.m. to noon), with "Today' colleagues Katie Couric and Matt Lauer, and the festiuities surrounding the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree (Nou. 28, 8-9 p.m.), qlongside Ann Curry @lso from "Today").
So you, Xatie and Matt ate hosting the Thanksgiving Day Pamde.

this.parade." I mean, look, I would have just been happy to go down to it! But my father was (does Bill Cosby cranky-parent voice) "Why we gotta go
down? We can see this on television. It's on TV!" Now I hope people stay home and watch it on TV!

That's right! I gan't honestly say that I grew up thinking, "Oh, I want to host

It's an easy joke. We're the last safe minority to make fun of. Although the reality is we're not a minority. Over 50
percent of America is overweight [according to the National Center for Health Statistics, which found in 1999

that 60percent of American adults are overweight or obpsel, Look, I worry about that. I've got a 1-4-year-old
second wife, Alice Belll who, thank God, is active and in good shape, and a

z m
@

[adopted daughter Courtney, with

U'

c z
o

tradition was we'd get up, have break-

But you kirow, I grew up here, in Queens for the most part, and our

That's right. 'lthat,

Tom Brokaw's t00 good

to work on

fast, mom would already have been up making the turkey and we'd watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Then we'd turn to Channel 11 and watch "March of the Wooden Soldiers" with Laurel and Hardy. Then it was

3-year-old [Leila Ruth, with third wife Deborah Roberts of ABC's "20120"1 who's very active and athletic. So as long as my children are active and

z
m

healthy.

ql
m

Look, it's no secret: You eat a little less and you exercise more. I always seem to get the two reversed, which is

a
-@

the problem.

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