Rolland Smith

Rolland G. Smith was most recently the anchor of the weekend edition of WWOR-TV's "My 9 News at 10" alongside Cathleen Trigg. On the July 23, 2006 edition of the broadcast, he announced that it would be his last night in the anchor's chair. Following his announcement, a 3-minute retrospective of Smith's career was shown.

Previously, he was an anchorman for WCBS-TV in New York City, and some time after that he anchored the "Rundown" newscast (as well as a weekly interview show titled "Conversations") at WRNN-TV while the station it was still located in Kingston, NY. Smith was co-host of CBS-TV's "Morning Program", a 90-minute weekday broadcast, from January 1987 to November 1987. He is also a published poet, with several books and CDs of his writings in print. His poetry is inspirational and sentimental.

"Fighting the frizzies, at 11"

This obscure-in-origin catch phrase among both Star Wars and South Park fans traces its origins to Rolland Smith. The legendary "so bad it's good" 1978 "Star Wars Holiday Special" is commercially unavailable except for the bootleg copies of home VHS and Betamax recordings of the show's one time airing. Among the most widely circulated recordings is one made from the broadcast on WCBS-TV, though recordings of the broadcast from many other CBS affiliates as well as overseas broadcasters abound.

During the WCBS broadcast, a young mustachioed Smith appears during a number of commercial breaks in a "teaser" for the upcoming 11 p.m. newscast, where he simply says "Fighting the frizzies, at 11", probably in reference to a story on hair care. [http://www.starwarsholidayspecial.com/multimedia.htm] The creators of "South Park", Matt Stone and Trey Parker - both huge fans of the "Star Wars" special - incorporated scenes of an actor dressed up as Rolland Smith delivering this line deadpan in a "South Park" holiday episode.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP4H4jV1Spo Fighting the frizzies, at 11]

"Cessna Flight Instruction "Cleared for Takeoff" video instructor"

Rolland Smith has recently been seen giving ground-school video instruction on Cessna's 'Cleared for Takeoff' multimedia packages.

External links

* [http://www.rollandgsmith.com/ Rolland Smith's official website]