Los Angeles Times

November 28, 2012 at 2:48pm 48 notes

TV Entertainment California Huell Howser

“A lot of people say, ‘You’ve been doing this so long, you’ve been everywhere. Aren’t you about to run out of places to go?’ What are you talking about, ‘everywhere’? You could tell me that I couldn’t go outside of a five-mile radius from where we’re having breakfast right now for stories and I wouldn’t blink an eye. There’s enough right within five miles to keep me busy the rest of my life. Why are we looking so hard? It’s right under our noses.” —Huell Howser

The decision of “California’s Gold” host Huell Howser to quietly retire was reported yesterday. Our Show Tracker blog has more details today:

“Huell is retiring from filming new shows or making appearances (or interviews) but the show will continue to air in reruns for awhile,” Ryan Morris, Howser’s assistant, wrote in an email to The Times. “We have been gradually winding down all year but Huell has decided to stop, come December 31st.”

As for the talk about Howser’s ill health, Morris added: “I have heard the rumors and while Huell does not always tell me everything, he seems to be doing fine. He is just trying to get away from television and enjoy some free time.”

Writing in The Times in 2009, TV critic Robert Lloyd was lavish in his praise: “I think of him as a kind of natural wonder, practically the last living representative of local television in Los Angeles, and for all I know, in America, that species having largely been crushed under the weight of media conglomeration. And as an ambassador: the man who takes TV to the people and puts the people — the sort of ordinary people TV ignores almost 100% of the time that Howser isn’t on — on TV.”

Photos of Howser in action here. Video above via his official YouTube channel.